The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) and global freight major Maersk have broken ground on the company’s biggest comprehensive logistics zone in the Middle East at the Jeddah Islamic Port.

The logistics park, which will come up on a 225,000-sq-m area, is being built at a total investment of SR1.3 billion ($346 million).

This is one of the key initiatives launched by Mawani with the aim of developing and providing investment opportunities in logistics zones for the private sector, and increasing the number of such zones that deal with re-exports to 30 by 2030, in line with the goals of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy to enhance the kingdom’s position as a global logistics centre.

The facility offers several logistics solutions that connect and facilitate the movement of supply chains, and deal with annual volumes of up to 200,000 containers of different products, it stated.

Mawani and Maersk had signed the agreement for the project at the end of 2021. Work is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024, it stated.

The zone will include storage and distribution areas that accommodate merchandise intended for export and import, warehouses to accommodate refrigerated food products, as well as a re-shipping area, air shipping, LCL cargo shipping, and an e-commerce execution centre, with high-storage intensity designs, and leading mechanical solutions.

According to Mawani, the zone will use renewable energy and will apply decarburisation solutions to achieve zero-carbon rates by 2040. Thus, the zone will be 100 per cent powered by solar power generated by panels on rooftops, spread over 65,000 sq m and trucks used for transport will be electric.