The total containers handled by Saudi ports under the supervision of the Saudi Ports Authority, or Mawani, have grown by 10.58 percent on a yearly basis by 10.58 percent year-on-year to 8.3 million standard containers, as compared to 7.5 million standard containers in the first half of 2025.
Transshipment containers made an 11.78 percent increment to reach 1.9 million standard containers at 1.7 million standard containers in the same period last year.
Outgoing containers also improved by 11.72 percent to 3.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units compared to 2.8 million TEUs, and inbound containers also gained by 8.82 percent to 3.2 million TEUs, in contrast to 2.9 million TEUs in the previous year.
The total tonnage processed, general cargo, solid bulk cargo, and liquid bulk cargo registered a growth of 1.06 percent to arrive at 242 million tonnes in 2025 compared to 239 million tonnes in 2024.
However, the total general cargo registered 12 million tonnes, liquid bulk cargo 176 million tonnes, and solid bulk cargo 53 million tonnes. The number of passengers expanded by 47.07 percent to 1.8 million passengers, as compared to the 736,177 passengers in the previous year.
Therefore, the shipping traffic was down by 17.98 percent to 9,508 ships in comparison to 11,592 in the same year last year. The vehicles declined by 4.92 percent to 1.03 million, which is lower than the 1.08 million of the previous year.
The ports received 8.9 million head of cattle, which was 7.55 percent less than the 9.7 million received in the same period in the previous year. The growth in the number of containers taking place is associated with a number of economic advantages, such as enhancing trade and stimulating the industries and sectors associated with maritime transport.
It also helps in the development of tourism, maritime, and related services, supply chains, and food security of the Kingdom, as per the goals of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy to establish Saudi Arabia as a global logistics centre.
Notably, the ports managed by Mawani registered a 12.5 percent growth in the number of containers that were processed in December to 800,089 TEUs, a figure that was 711,170 TEUs in 2024.
The increase in transshipment containers also stood at 19.25 percent, amounting to 188,995 TEUs, against 158,491 TEUs in the same period last year.
