Gulf Shipping and Stevedoring Limited Company Executes 50% of the Expansion Works

Public Relations- Atheeb Group, Jeddah, 11 November 2009

Gulf Shipping and Stevedoring Limited Company executes 50% of the expansion works of the northern containers terminal in Jeddah. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gulf Shipping and Stevedoring Limited Company and the investor of northern containers terminal in Jeddah Islamic port, HRH Prince Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz Al Saud stated that 50% of the expansion works were executed and benefited the running operations in October 2009.

This was during HRH Prince Khaled AlFaisal’s inspection tour to Jeddah Islamic Port where he inspected the workflow of the new expansion of the northern containers terminal in the port where he laid its foundation stone on 24 November 2008. HRH mentioned that the work is ongoing to complete the second stage of the expansion and he expected it to be completed at the end of first quarter of 2010.

HRH also added that the first batch of the new equipment for this expansion had arrived on 7 November 2009. These equipment are German industrial coastal cranes Liebherr-type that are considered as the latest and largest handling containers-cranes in the world, which is currently being installed in the sites. The second batch will arrive in December 2009 and consists of coastal cranes and ground cranes. All of them are “Liebherr” made, with very sophisticated specifications. All these equipments will be ready to serve at the end of the first quarter of 2010. The terminal capacity will thus be increased to 2.5 million containers, an increase of 800,000 containers yearly. The investments on this expansion have exceeded 450 million riyals, in addition to other investments that reached almost a billion Riyals previously invested in the terminal.

In addition to these investments, the company invests in developing and managing the containers terminal in Jubail’s commercial port with a contract period of 15 years. The total investments in this project reached 400 million riyals during the contract period. This project will make Jubail’s commercial port the number one Saudi exporting port on the Arabian Gulf, which will serve the Saudi industries and facilitate their access to the global markets as soon as possible to enhance their capability to compete globally.

Gulf Contracting and Stevedoring Limited Company has also won a contract for renting the general cargo terminal in King Fahad Industrial Port in Jubail for a period of 10 years. HRH added “I would like to thank the governor of Makkah province HRH Prince Khaled AlFaisal for laying the foundation stone of the terminal expansion last year and for his follow up on the workflow in this expansion this year. Also, I would like to thank the Minister of Transportation and the Chairman of Saudi Ports Authority Dr. Khaled Bubshait and the officials of Jeddah Islamic Port for their efforts and cooperation with the private sectors to develop the Saudi ports”.