Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) sealed an agreement through video conferencing with the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC), a Public Investment Fund (PIF) owned firm, to develop the kingdom’s largest and first grain terminal in Yanbu Commercial Port.
Built on a land area of 313,000 square meters, the terminal will be importing, processing, and exporting grains in the kingdom in two phases at a total capacity of 5 million tons per year, according to a press release on Thursday.
On this occasion, chairman of SALIC’s Board of Directors, Abdul Rahman Al Fadhli, said, “The project aims to enhance the velocity of the main grain influx to Saudi Arabia and is considered the first regional centre for grains in the commercial port of Yanbu.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Transport and chairman of Mawani’s Board of Directors, Saleh Al Jasser, remarked that the Yanbu grain project is “taking advantage of the Yanbu commercial port’s exceptional location on the Red Sea coast and the competitive advantage it provides, given its proximity to local and regional markets in the Red Sea Basin and the Horn of Africa.”
This partnership is pivotal to the ports and logistic services sector and comes in line with Mawani’s strategic objectives of fully utilising the huge absorptive capacity in Saudi ports and raising the percentage of private sector investment in the port sector to 90% by 2030.
“This regional project will support the operational traffic in the Yanbu Commercial Port, attract additional international shipping lines, and increase investment in the logistic services sector which will bring about significant growth in operational traffic and the increase in the number of ships that lead the port,” Al Jasser concluded
SALIC aims to significantly contribute to the import of basic commodities that are in line with the food security strategy in the Kingdom, whilst Mawani looks forward to collaborating with public and private sector organisations to support the kingdom's ports in becoming the leading regional and international ports while providing an efficient, high capacity, integrated port network.
