In late July, King Abdulaziz Port Dammam (KAPD) and Saudi Global Ports (SGP) celebrated the arrival of Hapag Lloyd’s Berlin Express, the largest container vessel to call at the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. At almost 400m long with a width of 61m, the Berlin Express is amongst the largest container vessels globally with a nominal capacity of 23,664 TEUs. It is also Hapag Lloyd’s first LNG dual-fuel ultra-large containership.
The arrival of Berlin Express at KAPD re-affirms the value of SGP’s decision to invest in a future-ready and globally competitive container terminal from the start of its development works in 2012. Berlin Express berthed at SGP’s Terminal 2 which has a handling capacity of 1.08 mil TEUs with 6 Quay Cranes (“QC”) and 18 Rubber Tyre Gantry Cranes (RTG) that allows it to adequately handle mega vessels.
SGP also put supply chain integration and efficiency at the forefront of its operations through the collaboration with PSA Singapore to block stow containers bound for Riyadh Dry Port (RDP) at its port of loading in Singapore. This collaboration allowed SGP to offload the RDP-bound containers at KAPD efficiently to connect them expeditiously onto the rail, increasing the reliability and attractiveness of intermodal movements in the Kingdom.
Berlin Express’ maiden voyage to Dammam brought over 9,000 TEUs into King Abdulaziz Port and is part of the AG3 service connecting the growing economies in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and China) with the Middle East (UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia).
