Maersk breaks ground on $346mln logistics park at Jeddah

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The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) and global freight major Maersk have announced the ground breaking of the company's biggest comprehensive logistics zone in the Middle East at the Jeddah Islamic port.

The logistics park, which will come up on a 225,000 sq m area, is being built at a total investment of SR1.3 billion ($346 million), said Mawani in its statement.

This is one of the key initiatives launched by Mawani with the aim of developing and providing investment opportunities in logistics zones for the private sector, and increasing the number of logistics zones that deal with re-exports to 30 by 2030, in line with the goals of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy to enhance the Kingdom's position as a global logistics center and a hub for three continents.

The facility offers several logistics solutions that connect and facilitate the movement of supply chains, and deal with annual volumes of up to 200,000 containers of different products, it stated.

Mawani and Maersk had signed the agreement for the project at the end of 2021. Work on the project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024, said Mawani in its statement.

The zone will include storage and distribution areas that accommodate merchandise intended for export and import, warehouses to accommodate refrigerated food products, as well as a re-shipping area, air shipping, LCL cargo shipping, and an e-commerce execution centre, with high-storage intensity designs, and leading mechanical solutions.

Once operational, will provide over 2,500 direct and indirect jobs, it stated.

The zone will use renewable energy and will apply decarburization solutions to achieve zero-carbon rates by 2040. Thus, the zone will be 100% powered by solar power generated by solar panels on rooftops, spread over 65,000 square metres, and trucks used for transport will be electric, to effectively reduce emissions.

The zone will operate according to an advanced warehouse management system that applies modern technologies and digital solutions to manage inventory efficiently, and provides unit-level tracking. An advanced dashboard will be provided for improving competencies and giving a competitive advantage to importers, exporters and navigational agents, and an in-house women's academy will offer training programs dedicated to women, said the statement.

The comprehensive logistics zone at the Islamic port of Jeddah will support the growth of the logistics industry, contribute significantly to the economy and increase the volume of the Kingdom's non-oil export share by 50%, creating growing career opportunities in the logistics sector, it added.-TradeArabia News Service