Middle East Business

Jeddah's South Container Terminal posts its highest monthly throughput since 1999 as Red Sea services return

By Staff Writer  |  27 August 2026

The terminal handled more than 221,200 containers in July, taking monthly volumes back above the levels recorded before the shipping disruption that began in late 2023.

The South Container Terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port moved more than 221,200 twenty-foot equivalent units in July 2026. On the operator's own account that is the highest monthly throughput at the terminal since it came under its current operator in 1999, and it puts monthly volumes above the level recorded before shipping through the Red Sea was disrupted from late 2023.

Exports set their own monthly record over the same period at 79,720 units. The month follows a first half in which terminal volumes rose by close to 79 per cent against the same period a year earlier, with growth recorded across imports, exports and transhipment and 390 vessel calls in six months. A mainline container vessel operated by Wan Hai made its first call in July.

The July record reflects the continued growth in trade moving through Jeddah. As volumes increase, our priority is to ensure the terminal has the capacity, equipment and operational capability to support our customers. We are also strengthening inland connectivity and logistics capabilities to support customers as their supply chain requirements evolve.

Mohammad Alshaikh, Chief Executive Officer of DP World KSA

What has actually been installed

The recovery in shipping is only half the account given. The operator lists recent investment at the terminal as three additional quay cranes, taking the quay crane fleet to 17, together with 17 automated electric rubber tyred gantry cranes, 35 electric terminal tractors, 30 further trailers and upgrades to reefer and cold storage. Further expansion is described as under way to take annual capacity to 5 million units.

That equipment list is the part a contractor or consultant on a Saudi logistics scheme can use. Quay crane count sets the berth productivity a terminal can promise. Yard equipment sets the dwell time it can hold. Cold storage capacity decides which cargoes a shipper can route through the port at all rather than trucking them from elsewhere.

Where a supply agreement was priced during the Red Sea diversions, the routing assumptions inside it may no longer match the sailings now available. Delivery periods, demurrage exposure and the definition of the delivery point are the terms worth re-reading before the next drawdown.

Why the direction of travel matters to a project team

Ahmad Yousef Al-Hassan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of DP World GCC, framed the month around connectivity rather than the figure itself. He said Jeddah connects businesses in the Kingdom with regional and global markets, and that as trade flows grow the focus is on building the capacity and connectivity to move cargo across the wider regional network, strengthening the links between ports, inland logistics and distribution so that customers have more options and more reliable routes to market.

For a construction project, a gateway operating above its pre-disruption run rate changes the arithmetic on imported plant and materials. Two years of diverted sailings put weeks on to transit times and turned the routing of a single delivery into a programme issue. A port back above its earlier volumes, with more services calling and more yard equipment behind the quay, shortens the tail on those assumptions.

The caution to keep

None of the figures published describes a permanent position. The month is a record month, not a run rate, and the return of services to the Red Sea is described by the operator as gradual. The expansion towards 5 million units a year is stated as under way rather than complete, and no completion date has been given for it.

What can be relied on is the equipment already delivered and the calls already made. Those are facts about the terminal as it stands today, and they are the ones to build a delivery programme against.