TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS MSC MINA, giant container ship docks at King Abdullah Port
In its first visit to the Kingdom, the MSC MINA, one of the world’s largest container ships, has docked at King Abdullah Port, a Saudi port with the capability to receive the largest vessels in the world. The docking occurred amidst a warm welcome and in the attendance of representatives from the port’s management, officials from the Economic Cities Authority, several government agencies active in the port, and representatives of major clients, who boarded the mega vessel to observe its massive size and capacity, and to learn about its components and advanced technologies. The MSC MINA has a capacity of 23,656 TEUs and features a length of 400 meters, a breadth of 61 meters, and a draft of 16.5 meters. In regards to container storage, the MSC MINA can accommodate 24 rows of containers, with a height of 13 containers per row. Classified among the MSC Megamax-24 category, the largest category of container vessels in the world, the MSC MINA helps reduce fuel consumption on the container level, according to transport experts, and therefore helps reduce overall transport costs and carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2013, King Abdullah Port announced its partnership with MSC and one year later received the MSC LONDON, which was the largest container ship to dock at a Saudi port at that time, followed in October 2015 by the MSC MAYA, the world’s largest at the time.
King Abdullah Port is characterized by its powerful, state-of-theart infrastructure and the world’s deepest 18-meter water berths. It is equipped with the world’s largest and most advanced cranes, which utilize the latest technologies and feature a lifting capacity of up to 65 tons, and which can handle 25 containers, thereby enabling the port to serve mega container vessels now and in the future.
The port recently announced the completion of the largest trade operation of its kind in the Kingdom with the receipt of 28 of the world’s latest Liebherr cranes as part of the new phase of the container terminal expansion project. The latter was sanctioned in a memorandum of understanding signed with the National Container Terminal Company last February at the official opening of the port in the attendance of the Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Technical teams are currently installing the cranes in the port and they are expected to start operating by the beginning of next year.