The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) and Maersk have broken ground on what’s billed as the latter’s largest comprehensive logistics zone in the Middle East. The Maersk Logistics Park, which will come up on a 225,000sqm area in Jeddah Islamic port, is being built at a total investment of US $346mn.
Mawani and Maersk first signed the agreement for the project at the end of 2021, and work on the project is expected to be complete in Q1 2024.
According to a statement from Mawani, the logistics park is one of the company’s key initiatives aimed at 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. This is said to be in line with the goals of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy, which aims to enhance the Kingdom’s position as a global logistics center and a hub for three continents.
The facility is said to offer several logistics solutions that connect and facilitate the movement of supply chains, and deals with annual volumes of up to 200,000 containers of different products.