Maritime on SAUDI VISION 2030 Intelligence Platform

Maritime and Shipping Investment

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Maritime and Shipping Investment in Saudi Arabia

Maritime and shipping investment in Saudi Arabia centres on ports, container terminals, shipbuilding, repair yards, offshore services, logistics, and Red Sea hub opportunities enabled by the Kingdom’s 3,800 kilometres of coastline.

The Kingdom’s port system handled approximately 350 million tonnes of cargo and over nine million TEUs in container throughput in recent years, with Jeddah Islamic Port and King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam serving as the primary gateway ports. Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority) is executing a comprehensive port modernisation programme targeting the doubling of container handling capacity to approximately twenty-five million TEUs and significantly increasing bulk handling capacity to serve growing industrial and consumer import requirements.

Saudi Cruise Tourism: Red Sea and Gulf Cruise Development

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Cruise tourism is a nascent but strategically important Vision 2030 sector, and this Saudi cruise tourism development analysis tracks the KPIs that matter: port readiness, Red Sea and Gulf itineraries, Cruise Saudi partnerships, and shore-excursion depth. The Kingdom’s extensive coastlines — approximately 1,800 kilometres along the Red Sea and 700 kilometres along the Arabian Gulf — provide the geographic foundation for cruise itineraries that could tap into one of the world’s fastest-growing tourism segments.

Saudi Ports and Maritime: Jeddah Islamic Port, Dammam, and Mawani's Modernisation Programme

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saudi Arabia Ports & Maritime: Mawani Vision 2030

Saudi Arabia’s port infrastructure serves as the critical gateway for a Kingdom that imports the vast majority of its consumer goods, food, and manufactured products while exporting petrochemical products, minerals, and increasingly, non-oil goods. The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) oversees a network of nine commercial ports that collectively handle over 300 million tonnes of cargo annually. Under Vision 2030, the ports sector is being transformed through privatisation, capacity expansion, technology modernisation, and strategic positioning as a regional logistics hub connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa.