The authority, also known as Mawani, said the volume of cargo reached 237 million tons compared to 210 million tons a year earlier.

The Kingdom’s ports also recorded a 3.2 percent increase in containers handled to 10.36 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2022, compared to 10.04 million TEUs in 2021. Outbound and inbound containers amounted to 4.83 million TEUs, a rise of 5 percent compared to 4.63 million TEUs in 2021.

Transshipment containers also rose by 2 percent to 5.52 million TEUs in 2022, compared to 5.41 million TEUs in 2021. Ports across the Kingdom also recorded a 9 percent increase in the import of livestock during 2022.

In a separate statement, the authority said the King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam and its container terminal operator Saudi Global Ports ended 2022 with the highest container throughput.

It said the Dammam port recorded a 15 percent increase in container throughput with 2,038, 787 TEUs as compared to 1,780,348 in 2021.

Lauding the role of the terminal operator, Madani said “SGP has propelled the Kingdom’s northern trade gateway into the big league.”