Yanbu Commercial Port is the nearest major Saudi seaport to Europe and North America and is the focal point of the most rapidly growing area on the Red Sea. Traditionally it has served as the nearest gateway for seaborne pilgrims bound for the holy city of Madinah. Port expansion in 1979 increased the capacity to nine berths with modern facilities and equipment. It can handle in excess of 3 million tonnes of cargo per year.
Yanbu Commercial Port played a major role in development of many refineries and project plants by handling huge quantities of general cargo, project cargo, heavy lifts, containers and various construction material (including bulk cement / clinker) in the early years. Today export of bulk cement and clinker is handled at this port.Millions of tons of bulk-barley is regularly handled at this port for onward distribution to various parts of the country. It also caters to the requirement of the Industrial city of Yanbu 20 kms south of this port through import handling of bulk Rutile, Petcoke, project cargo etc. As a major trading partner this port also contributes towards the social and economic development of the Yanbu community.
TERMINAL CAPACITY: Yanbu Commercial Port is suitable for handling different types of ships including General cargo, Ro – Ro, passenger ships, bulk-cargo etc. The mile-long entry channel is over 200 mtrs wide and ships with beam upto 50 m and LOA of 260 m can safely navigate through this port. Currently the port is accessible to ships of upto 10.36 m draught. Very soon the terminal operator would undertake dredging operations of the harbour to increase the depth to upto 12 m. Some of the large vessels that have called at this port are m.v. Mega Brook (29.5.1995) with LOA : 267.58m / Beam : 39m / DWT : 123000. ; m.v. Exempler LOA: 265.57m / Beam : 40.4m / DWT : 122760 . Yanbu Commercial Port is designed and equipped to handle a wide range of cargo-mix including general cargo, Ro-Ro cargo, containers (on conventional vessels), bulk cargo and passenger traffic.
DESIGNED CAPACITY FOR DIFFERENT TYPE OF CARGO
G e n e r a l 6 Berths, 1,840,000 tonnes
D r y – B u l k C a r g o (food, grain and others)
3 Berths 1,870,000 tonnes
T O T A L = 9 Berths 3,710,000 tonnes.
The terminal operator is obliged to handle up to 4 ships simultaneously per day. Against the above capacity the actual cargo handled during the past four years is given below :
P E R I O D : 1 9 9 5, 1 9 9 6, 1 9 9 7 and 1 9 9 8
I m p o r t s : 851,009, 801,326, 1,055,750 and 554,570
E x p o r t s : 24,295 15,365 10,977 and 92.026
T O T A L : 875,304 816,691 1,066,727 and 646,596.
CARGO TERMINAL : Yanbu Commercial Port has 9 deep-water berths to handle ships over 100,000 DWT with current draught of upto 10.36 mtrs. BERTH NUMBER, LENGTH, DRAUGHT AND TYPE OF BERTH..
No1 170 m, 8.22 m, Passenger Terminal
No2 210 m, 8.53 m, General Cargo
No3 210 m, 10.97 m, Dry-bulk Silo Terminal
No4 106 m, 10.36 m, General Cargo
No5 260 m, 10.36 m, General / Bulk Bargo
No6 260 m, 10.67 m, General / Bulk Cargo
No7 280 m, 10.67 m, General / Bulk Cargo
No8 190 m, 10.97 m, Bulk Cargo
No9 260 m, 11.12 m, Bulk Cargo
The cargo terminal is provided with extensive storage facilities.There are 6 transit sheds adjacent to berths and 3 warehouses with a total covered storage space of 61950 m˛. In addition the port has one cold storage warehouse measuring(80m x28m x13m) and one hazardous goods warehouse(45m x11m x 6.2m). This port has a vast paved open storage area measuring approximately 529,400 m˛.
The Bulk Cement Handling Plant has two silos each with a storage capacity of 20,000 tonnes. Through conveyor bridges it is linked with a mechanical unloader (Siwertell ) at berth No3 .
The passenger terminal also has a large pilgrim Hall with adequate facilities to complete immigration and customs formalities of the passengers.
Geographical advantage