Jeddah Islamic Port has received the first vessel on the Himalaya Express shipping service operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
The port’s addition was first announced in September.
The new shipping service connects the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to 260 global ports across Northern Europe, the Americas, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Subcontinent, and Eastern Asia.
The Saudi Ports Authority (MAWANI) said this new service will boost imports and exports as well as expand shipping operations to and from the Kingdom.
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The Himalaya Express service directly links Jeddah Islamic Port and the ports of Colombo, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Salalah, King Abdullah, Valencia, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp through 11 motherships out of 730 vessels that have an average carrying capacity of 14,000 TEU.
The addition of Jeddah to the MSC service follows strategic efforts from MAWANI to expand liner shipping networks in a bid to boost global trade connection.
Just recently, the port authority added King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam to its Aladin Express DMCC’s shipping service, Gulf-India Express 2 (GIX2).
In addition, MAWANI signed new contracts in October to deepen and build new berths at Jeddah Islamic Port.
The two contracts, worth a total of SAR642 million ($171 million), were signed with major contractors PC Marine Services and Modern Building Leaders (MBL), the latter in consortium with HutaHegerfeld Saudia Ltd.
