Volumes at Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT), in Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) grew 25% in Q1 on the year-earlier figure, with local volume growing by 44% and transhipment by 2%, port officials tell Seatrade Global.

RSGT is expected to handle around 1.6m teu in 2015, while lsat year, it saw around 1.4m teu.

The start-up of operations at King Abdullah Port (KAP) at Rabigh has not adversely affected RSGT's operations, according to the terminal’s md Soren Hansen.

“KAP has attracted some transhipment cargo that was handled in JIP. However, this has not had a negative impact on the performance of RSGT. With the reduced transhipment volume, it has eased the capacity issues within JIP, giving more room for local volume growth,” he said.

“JIP is strategically located within the bases of a majority of businesses and customers handling the volumes for the local Saudi market, and this gives the opportunity for local cargo volume to increase further in Jeddah.”

He anticipates that the Riyadh-Jeddah Saudi “Landbridge”, which will link Dammam to Jeddah by rail, to be completed in around 2020, will allow Jeddah to handle more cargo from the east of the country.

RSGT regularly handles mega-vessels with capacities of over 14,000 teu at the terminal, and saw a total of 110 such calls in 2014.

"In March, RSGT received one of the biggest container vessels in the world, the 19,100-teu CSCL Globe, [underlining] the ability of the terminal to handle mega-vessel calls," Hansen said.

Today, annual capacity stands at 1.8m teu, and this is expected to grow to 2.6m teu in 2016 with draught alongside of 18m.

RSGT currently has regular mainline services from UASC, CSCL, CMA-CGM, Maersk Line, and Hanjin Shipping.