Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) has long served as the Gateway to Saudi Arabia.

Located on the Red Sea and enjoying proximity to the Holy Places, it has proved to be of vital importance both for serving the day-to-day needs of the city it spawns and the requirements of thousands of pilgrims. The port’s importance transcends the city. Jeddah is today a vibrant commercial hub, thanks to the inflow of a variety of merchandise required for the kingdom and the outflow of goods as exports. As a matter of fact, as Sahir Bin Moussa Tahlawi, director-general, JIP, points out, 80 per cent of cargo entering Saudi Arabia flows through the port, leaving just 20 per cent to be handled by other ports in the kingdom.
Tahlawi provides another clue to its importance in Jeddah life. “In virtually every house in Jeddah there’s one person working at the port. The whole community is involved,” he exclaims.
The official notes that a key to the port’s greatness is its location on the international sea lanes. Over the years it has greatly modernised its operations, and with Jeddah enjoying a resurgence in industrial and commercial activity, JIP had assumed even greater importance. In the last two to three years, the Saudi Government invested SR2 to 3 billion on facilities, and the port seems to be modernising and growing so fast that existing container terminals are proving quite inadequate to meet demand. So recently, the Saudi Port Authority granted a licence to the private company Tusdeer to launch a container terminal project under the build, operate and transfer scheme.
Looking back to consider how JIP had grown, Tahlawi presented a picture of progress. At the end of 2006 there were12 container berths in operation with a total length of 2.8 km and draughts of between 11 and 16 m. Servicing these berths are more than 27 quay cranes.  At the end of 2000, there had been 7 container berths of a total length of 1.8 km and only 8 cranes in use. The port came a long way from 1977, when JIP had just one container berth of 180 m and two cranes to deal with the cargo.
As container cargo is a good indicator of a port’s level of activity, it is clear that JIP has moved forward. In 2006, it saw growth of 3 per cent, achieving 3 million teu compared with 2.87 million teu in the previous year, which itself registered a substantial rise of 18.6 per cent over 2004. In 2001, the container traffic was a mere 1.19 million teu. Container transshipment was 1.51 million teu in 2006, up 1.53 per cent over the previous year. In 2001, transshipment was 234,822 teu.
Throughput tonnage in 2006 was 40.34 million, up 2.1 per cent over 2005, a year that registered a growth of 17.9 per cent over the previous year. In 2001 throughput tonnage was 19.67 million tonnes, less than half of the 2006 tonnage. The vessel rate in 2006 was 75 containers per vessel per hour (CVH) against 30 CVH in 1996.  The crane rate was 35 containers per crane hour (CH) in 2006 against 13 CH in 1996. In 2005, Jeddah Islamic Port was placed 27th among the first 100 container ports in the world.
The scenario will change radically once the new Tusdeer container terminal begins to welcome shipping lines from all over the world. That should happen some time in 2010.
“We realised we had to go only for containers, and that’s why we are building now four flat berths and a new SR1.6 billion container terminal,” said Tahlawi.
The new terminal will handle more than 1.5 million teu, and with momentum expected to be maintained in the future, JIP bids fair to stand alongside the top ports in the world.