PORT PROFILE — RED SEA
King Abdullah Port Profile
Saudi Arabia’s first fully privately owned and operated port, inside King Abdullah Economic City: 18-metre berths, the world’s largest quay cranes, a World Bank efficiency ranking nobody else in the Kingdom has held, and a masterplan measured in tens of millions of TEU.
UN/LOCODE
SAKAC
Owner & operator
Ports Development Company — private
Opened
Phased from 2013; inaugurated 2019
Berth depth
18 m — among the deepest in the region
Container capacity
≈3 million TEU now; 20 million+ at full build
World Bank CPPI
Ranked first in the world, 2021
Operator and ownership
- Owner & developer
- Ports Development Company (PDC) — King Abdullah Port is Saudi Arabia’s first port to be fully owned, developed and operated by the private sector.
- Container terminals
- National Container Terminals (NCT).
- Bulk & general cargo
- Operated under separate terminal agreements, including a 25-year agreement with AMSteel for the first bulk and general cargo berth.
- Setting
- King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), a 173 km² planned city in Rabigh Governorate, Makkah Province, now designated a Special Economic Zone.
- Regulator
- Mawani regulates the port; it does not operate it, which is why the port sits outside Mawani’s operated-port throughput series.
Location and coordinates
On the Red Sea inside King Abdullah Economic City, roughly 90–100 km north of Jeddah and about 40 km south of Rabigh — on the same Suez–Bab el-Mandeb trunk route as Jeddah, with the room to expand that the Jeddah estate does not have.
- Coordinates
- 22.5248° N, 39.0942° E
- Port area
- ≈17.4 km²
- Channel & berth depth
- 18 m
- Max vessel
- LOA 400 m, up to ≈225,000 DWT; ultra-large containerships of more than 23,500 TEU handled
- Distance to Jeddah
- ≈90–100 km south
Cargo types handled
Terminal facilities
- Container terminals
- 18 m depth, with quay cranes among the largest in the world — a 25-TEU outreach and 65-tonne capacity — backed by rubber-tyred gantries, automated guided vehicles and around 3,000 reefer plugs on self-reliant power.
- Ro-ro terminal
- Built out towards 1.5 million car-equivalent units a year, which would make the port the regional leader in ro-ro.
- Bulk & general cargo terminal
- Clean bulk, agri-bulk and general cargo, with a design ceiling around 30 million tonnes a year at full build.
- Digital layer
- A Port Community System and a Smart Gate system, integrated from the outset rather than retrofitted — part of why the port has scored so well on international efficiency benchmarks.
The 18-metre depth is the defining physical fact about this port. It is deeper than most of the region and it is why ultra-large containerships call here without tidal restriction.
Annual tonnage and TEU
| Metric | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Container capacity | ≈3 million TEU | current |
| Container capacity, near-term plan | 5 million TEU | planned |
| Container capacity, full masterplan | 20 million+ TEU | ultimate |
| Ro-ro capacity, when berths complete | 1.5 million CEU | planned |
| World Bank Container Port Performance Index | ranked 1st globally | 2021 |
| Container throughput, audited annual series | n/p | not published |
The port is privately owned and does not sit inside Mawani’s operated-port throughput series, so there is no audited annual TEU figure for it in the national statistics. Third-party estimates circulate and disagree with each other by a factor of five; this desk prints the published capacity and the verifiable efficiency ranking, and leaves throughput as not published.
SOURCES · King Abdullah Port · Ports Development Company · World Bank Container Port Performance Index
Main carriers and shipping lines
The port has partnered with the largest container lines since its early years and reports services from a wide group of global operators. Folk Maritime, the PIF-backed Saudi national feeder line, uses the Red Sea ports as its base. Transhipment is a larger share of the mix here than at any other Saudi port on the Red Sea except Jeddah.
Road and rail connections
- Road
- Highway 5, the Red Sea coastal route, links the port to Jeddah, Rabigh and Yanbu; KAEC’s internal network connects the port to the Industrial Valley on the same site.
- Rail — passenger
- The Haramain High-Speed Railway has a station at King Abdullah Economic City. Passengers only.
- Rail — freight
- None. As with every Red Sea port, there is no freight railway; the Saudi Landbridge would be the first.
- Air
- King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah is roughly 94 km south — the nearest international airport.
Customs facilities
ZATCA operates the customs post; FASAH carries declarations and permits.
King Abdullah Economic City is one of the Special Economic Zones announced in 2023, with duty-deferral, customs and tax incentives designed for manufacturing, logistics and re-export — the reason a company setting up light manufacturing on the Red Sea coast often lands here rather than at Jeddah.
The port’s Port Community System and Smart Gate integrate the terminal, the lines and customs on one platform.
Cold-chain capability
Approximately 3,000 reefer plugs on the container terminals, on a self-reliant power supply — which matters, because a reefer yard that loses power loses cargo.
Cold storage is available in the port and in the KAEC Industrial Valley alongside it, giving importers a port-adjacent cold-chain option rather than a road leg to Jeddah.
Dangerous-goods capability
Dangerous goods are handled under the IMDG Code with segregation, prior notification and approval.
The port’s industrial hinterland is KAEC’s Industrial Valley rather than a petrochemical complex, so the DG profile is closer to general manufacturing and consumer chemicals than to the Gulf-coast industrial ports.
Expansion projects
- Capacity build-out
- Container capacity is planned to grow from around 3 million to 5 million TEU, with a masterplan that ultimately envisages more than 20 million TEU, 1.5 million cars and around 30 million tonnes of clean bulk cargo a year.
- Ro-ro berths
- Five ro-ro berths are being built out, which together would give a total of 1.5 million CEU a year and regional leadership in ro-ro cargo.
- KAEC Special Economic Zone
- The SEZ designation is the port’s main commercial development — it converts the port from a transhipment and gateway facility into the seafront of an industrial and logistics zone.
Official contact links
- King Abdullah Port ↗
- The port’s own site — terminals, equipment and services.
- King Abdullah Economic City ↗
- The city and Special Economic Zone around the port.
- Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) ↗
- The regulator.
- ZATCA ↗
- Customs, tariff and SEZ clearance rules.
RiyadhCargo.com is an independent news monitoring service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting for any organisation named on this page. Links are provided for reference only.
Latest related news
Nothing on the wire mentioning King Abdullah Port at the moment. The desk below carries the wider beat, and the feeds refresh every 10 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Is King Abdullah Port government-owned?
No. It is Saudi Arabia’s first fully privately owned, developed and operated port, run by Ports Development Company inside King Abdullah Economic City. Mawani regulates it but does not operate it.
How deep are the berths?
18 metres — among the deepest in the region, with a maximum LOA of 400 m and vessels up to roughly 225,000 DWT. Ultra-large containerships of more than 23,500 TEU have been handled.
How much cargo does it handle?
There is no audited annual throughput series for the port, because it sits outside Mawani’s operated-port statistics. Published capacity is around 3 million TEU now, with plans for 5 million and a masterplan beyond 20 million. This desk does not print the conflicting third-party throughput estimates.
What was the World Bank ranking?
King Abdullah Port topped the World Bank Container Port Performance Index in 2021 — the highest-rated container port in the world that year, and a ranking no other Saudi port has held.
Why choose King Abdullah Port over Jeddah?
Depth, room to expand, a purpose-built digital layer, and the KAEC Special Economic Zone regime immediately behind the quay. Jeddah has more services, more feeder connections and a shorter road leg to the western consumption centres.
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