King Abdulaziz Port Dammam (KAPD) and Saudi Global Ports (SGP) has celebrated the arrival of Hapag-Lloyd’s Berlin Express, the largest container vessel to call at the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
At almost 400 meters long with a width of 61 meters, the Berlin Express is amongst the largest container vessels globally with a nominal capacity of 23,664 TEUs.
It is also Hapag-Lloyd’s first LNG dual-fuel ultra-large containership.
The arrival of Berlin Express at KAPD re-affirms the value of SGP’s decision to invest in a future-ready and globally competitive container terminal from the start of its development works in 2012.
The Berlin Express berthed at SGP’s Terminal 2, which has a handling capacity of 1.08 million TEU with 6 quay cranes and 18 rubber tyre gantry (RTG) cranes that allows the terminal to adequately handle mega-ships.
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SGP also has also put supply chain integration and efficiency at the forefront of its operations through the collaboration with PSA Singapore to block stow containers bound for Riyadh Dry Port at its port of loading in Singapore.
This collaboration allowed SGP to offload the RDP-bound containers at KAPD efficiently to connect them expeditiously onto the rail, increasing the reliability and attractiveness of intermodal movements in the Kingdom.
The Berlin Express’ maiden voyage to Dammam brought over 9,000 TEU into King Abdulaziz Port and is part of the AG3 service connecting the growing economies in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and China) with the Middle East (UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia).