The Danish shipping company, Maersk’s Saudi Arabian subsidiary, has announced a strategic relationship with King Abdullah Port, the region’s first privately owned, developed, and controlled port, to boost the Kingdom’s logistics capabilities by adding cutting-edge services and technologies to the port’s offerings.
The company has planned to build a non-bonded warehouse that will provide a variety of logistical services for chemical producers in the King Abdullah Economic City area of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The Maersk Integrated Logistics Hub at King Abdullah Port will meet the critical logistical needs for exporters who already use Maersk solutions such as landside cargo movement, customs clearance, and ocean logistics, assuring a totally integrated logistics solution.
The hub will act as the central supply chain solution, primarily for Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical exporters, through the huge space allotted for cargo handling and storage. It will be critical in facilitating export cargo storage, as well as pallet handling, stuffing, and shuttling.
According to Maersk, The Maersk hub will be located within a two-kilometer radius of the terminal yard, adjacent to the port’s customs inspection zone, saving exporters time.
The hub will part of a larger program aiming at improving Saudi Arabia’s logistics sector’s performance, efficiencies, and competitiveness. It also aligns with Vision 2030’s goals, which include making the Kingdom a top global logistics center connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa, as well as expanding non-oil exports and raising the Kingdom’s global Logistics Performance Index position from 49 to 25.
“The Maersk Integrated Logistics Hub at the King Abdullah Port is a significant step forward in our mission to provide logistics solutions to our Saudi Arabian customers. Our commitment to serve Saudi Arabia’s commerce and streamlining our customers’ supply chains is reaffirmed with the multi-carrier origin center for petrochemical exporters,” said Mr. Mohammad Shihab, managing director at Maersk Saudi Arabia.
During the first two years of operations at the hub, Maersk will invest in 100,000 square meters of warehousing capacity to accommodate the expected demand of one million metric tons of throughput from neighboring chemical suppliers.
