Ground has been broken on a new logistics park that will cover 415,000 square meters. The project is being jointly developed by DP World and the Saudi Ports Authority.

According to DP World, the new facility will provide modern warehousing and distribution facilities and help facilitate trade within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the wider region. Established in 2022 as part of a 30-year franchise, the Jeddah Logistics Park will be developed in two phases and is scheduled to open in the second quarter of next year.

According to a report, the greenfield facility, which cost $250 million to develop, will have 185,000 square meters of storage space and a multi-purpose storage yard, which will make it the largest integrated logistics park in Saudi Arabia. The facility will have more than 390,000 pallet locations, providing customers with an efficient platform for the seamless flow of goods to and from Jeddah.

The facility will install a rooftop solar farm on the warehouse that will generate 20MW of renewable energy, contributing to its sustainable design.

"Saudi Arabia has always been a very important market for DP World and this milestone represents our ongoing commitment to the Kingdom. Strategically located on the important Asia-Europe route, the Jeddah Logistics Park will provide our customers with world-class multimodal transport connectivity and market access, while supporting the ambitious goals of the Saudi Vision 2030. This investment marks an important step in our 25th anniversary of operating in Jeddah and underlines our enduring commitment to facilitating trade flows, "said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman and CEO of DP World.

The collaboration between Mawani and DP World also includes the management of the South Container Terminal through a separate 30-year concession signed in 2020. The terminal is currently in the final stages of a comprehensive modernization project and will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024, when the processing capacity will be increased to 5 million 20-foot equivalent units. The total investment for the two DP World projects is close to $1 billion.

Omar bin Talal Hariri, president of Mawani, said this new logistics zone will be connected to DP World South Container Terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port, boosting growth and increasing the number of containers handled by the terminal.

"This project is part of Mawani's broader efforts to expand the number of logistics hubs in Saudi ports in partnership with major domestic and international companies, and is in line with the goals of the national Transport and Logistics Strategy and Vision 2030," he stressed. Editor/Wang Tian