In the previous session we heard about the KSA's aggressive and ambitious strategy of economic diversification, policy reforms, and the outlook for foreign direct investments over the next five years. Reflecting Saudi Arabia’s commitment to developing its maritime trade, expanding into new economic cities, and digitalising vessel operations, Saudi Arabia scored the highest regional progress in the Maritime Connectivity Index in 2021 and is ranked 20th globally in the maritime transport industry. In fact, its maritime sector has doubled in the past decade, with 53,000 ships operating within it that are registered in 150+ countries and carry 11 billion tonnes of cargo annually.

This makes the Kingdom a powerful and promising partner for even more regional and global trade, meaning at the same time, a level of alignment with the wider maritime industry is required, as it is changing and inching closer to new ways of working and trading.

In this session we turn to the international community for their outlook on trade and regulations, as well as opportunities for collaboration with the KSA.

The presentation will answer the following questions:

• What are the main drivers of container shipping freight markets?
• Have the container volume gains of the pandemic been wiped out in the past year?
• The pandemic saw massive capacity shortages, but are we now headed back to endemic over-capacity?
• What are the likely container market scenarios for the coming six months and the next three years?
• Have service levels returned to the pre-pandemic normality?
  
  
  

Progress on maritime transport infrastructure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia forms part of a wider strategy aimed at developing the domestic ports and logistics sector. Experts expect maritime logistics to be a fast-growing activity in 2023‑27, supported by the government's ambitious aim of making Saudi Arabia the leading regional logistics hub.

One of the key drivers for the achievement of the Vision2030 ambitions will be the readiness of the country and its institutional framework. The country is going through an overall institutional reform which shall also affect the governance of the port and maritime sector, and eventually bring a nationwide regulating body for all port and maritime affairs, segregated from the asset ownership and operation. This is ongoing and is already attracting international players to the country either through PPPs (public-private partnerships) or foreign direct investment. The role of the Public Investment Fund, already present in several of the port and logistics assets, can also be a game-changer for the country’s capacity to deliver and activate the investments required.

In this session we look at infrastructure investment and developments over the past year and what opportunities they present for trade.

The Kingdom continues to invest heavily in the Maritime Logistics sector, with multiple large-scale projects to upgrade existing ports and terminals—and to develop new ports and introduce new trade routes—recently completed, under way or in the planning pipeline. Investment in port facilities and new liner services contributed to a solid increase in seaport throughput in 2022.

Container throughput, container volumes, transshipment and passenger throughput all posted positive gains in 2022 compared with 2021, and upward trends for all measures are expected in 2023‑27.

Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) is driving the effort to raise seaport activity in the kingdom and recorded progress on a series of investments during the next five years to expand the capacity of the kingdom’s maritime sector.

With these summary figures in mind, we turn our focus on Port infrastructure and the impact on cargo trade in the Gulf and globally.

2023 kicked off with some major projects and significant investment activity across the region. OSV owners welcome better market circumstances and higher fleet utilisation compared to 2022. Bearing in mind the increasing uptake in drilling activities across the region, where will the additional supply vessel come from?

• Regional and global competition
• Impact of Newbuilds and Layouts?
• Likely impact of relaxing of age limits and delayed scrapping?