Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has invited firms to prequalify by 14 March for the contract to build a quay wall in the northern area of the multipurpose terminal at Dhiba Port.

Dhiba Port is located on the north end of the kingdom’s Red Sea coast and is the nearest Saudi port to the Suez Canal.

MEED understands the port has three berths. Berth 1 handles livestock cargo, berth 2 is for general cargo, and berth 3 is for roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) cargo, including vehicles.

The port was built in 1995 primarily to serve Saudi Arabia’s northwestern region and to trade with ports in Egypt.

It is the third Saudi port on the Red Sea coast. The other two are Jeddah Islamic Port, which has three container terminals, and King Abdullah Port.

An estimated 20,000 container vessels pass through the Red Sea on the way to the Mediterranean Sea or Egypt’s Suez Canal every year.

Saudi Arabia captures only 15 per cent of this traffic.

The ongoing ports modernisation programme aims to significantly increase this figure in line with the kingdom’s national industrialisation programme.