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Siyanco-DPA investing $50m in infrastructure

Siyanco-DPA, a joint venture between Saudi Maintenance Corporation (Siyanco) and Dubai Ports Authority (DPA)

which operates Jeddah South Container Terminal, is investing almost $50 million in new equipment and infrastructure.

DPI, an international arm of DPA, handled last year over one million TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) at the DPI-managed South Container Terminal in Jeddah Islamic Port. Recording a 58 per cent rise in throughput last year meant that the facility became the first in Saudi Arabia to top the one million TEUs/year mark.

Throughput this year is expected to reach 1.3 million TEUs and the new investments are aimed at boosting capacity to two million TEUs at the terminal, managed by joint venture, in which major investments on the part of DPA are involved.

Jeddah Islamic Port was DPI's first project on which it collaborated with a local partner. The 20-year contract, which commenced in September 1999, has involved extensive investment. Since then, DPI has increased productivity level in the terminal by over 100 per cent. In addition to four Super Post Panamax cranes delivered to Jeddah early last year, two Super Post Panamax quayside cranes and three RTGs (rubber tyred gantry cranes) are currently on order.

Earlier this year, DPI also announced its plans to invest $30 million in development of Djibouti Container Terminal, Free Zone and Logistics Centre and an Oil Terminal in Doraleh. Both moves are following DPA's expectations that its international port management will see its volumes exceed those handled domestically by the end of this decade, despite annual double-digit growth in container handling at Dubai ports.

Last year, DPA handled 5.1 million TEUs through Dubai, while DPI's operations in Jeddah, Djibouti and Vasakhapatnam in India handled a combined total of 1.3 million TEUs. However, DPI's volumes are expected to overtake volumes handled by DPA in the domestic market within the next five years. DPI's continued expansion overseas means that it is confident that its international operations will soon exceed Dubai's volumes.