Jeddah : 31st August 2026
A port does not handle its highest monthly container volume in more than two decades by accident.
In July 2026, DP World’s South Container Terminal (SCT) at Jeddah Islamic Port handled more than 221,200 TEUs, its highest monthly throughput since DP World began operating the terminal in 1999. More importantly, the figure was higher than the terminal’s monthly volumes before the Red Sea shipping disruption began in late 2023.
That makes this more than another record-month announcement.
From disruption to recovery — and now expansion
The Red Sea crisis changed the operating map for container shipping. For much of the period after late 2023, vessels avoided the Bab el-Mandeb and Suez route, adding time and cost to Asia–Europe services and changing the pattern of calls at Red Sea ports.
Jeddah was directly exposed to that disruption. Yet the latest numbers suggest that the terminal is not merely getting back the cargo it lost.
During the first six months of 2026, SCT throughput increased by nearly 79% year-on-year, with growth across imports, exports and transshipment. The terminal handled 390 vessel calls during the first half of the year, while new services continued to arrive. A Wan Hai-operated mainline container vessel, for example, made its maiden call at SCT in July.
There is another number that deserves attention: 79,720 TEUs of exports in July, the terminal’s highest monthly export volume over the same period. That is important because a growing export flow tells a different story from a simple transshipment rebound. It points towards increasing two-way cargo movement through the Saudi market.
The cranes were upgraded before the cargo arrived
Perhaps the most interesting part of the story happened before this record.
In March 2025, DP World and Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) inaugurated a SAR 3 billion ($800 million) expansion and modernisation of the South Container Terminal. The project increased the terminal’s capacity from 1.8 million TEUs to 4 million TEUs, with a longer-term potential of 5 million TEUs. The upgrade also brought automation, digitisation and smart systems into the operation.
In March 2026, DP World added three quay cranes at the terminal. The company said the terminal had already handled more than 1.3 million TEUs during 2025, as Red Sea services returned.
That sequence matters.
Capacity was expanded first. Cargo growth followed.
It is a much healthier port-development story than trying to build capacity only after the terminal is already congested.
Jeddah is also becoming a more connected port
Saudi Arabia is simultaneously adding more direct shipping connections.
Mawani announced new Maersk services in March 2026 linking Jeddah and King Abdullah Port with ports including Nhava Sheva and Mundra in India, Salalah in Oman and King Abdullah Port. The combined services have handling capacity of up to 14,400 TEUs.
In May, Mawani also announced CMA CGM’s Ocean Rise service connecting Jeddah with major Asian and European ports including Kobe, Nagoya, Yokohama, Xiamen, Yantian, Nansha, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Southampton.
This is where the story becomes bigger than DP World.
Jeddah is being positioned not simply as a place where ships load and discharge containers, but as part of Saudi Arabia’s wider attempt to build a three-continent logistics platform.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reporting shows the scale of that ambition. The country reported 24.3 million TEUs of container throughput in 2025, alongside more than 100 new shipping services, while continuing to invest in port capacity, connectivity and logistics infrastructure.
The national logistics strategy has an even larger target: raising the volume handled through Saudi ports towards 40 million TEUs by 2030.
And there is an important change inside the terminal itself
There is another development that should not be missed.
In February 2026, APM Terminals acquired a 37.5% minority stake in Jeddah’s South Container Terminal, with DP World retaining 62.5% and continuing to operate the facility. Saudi Ports Authority confirmed the transaction.
So the terminal is now backed by two major global terminal players while remaining under DP World’s operational leadership.
That could become strategically important as liner networks are reshaped around the Red Sea, Suez, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean.
The real test starts now
The July record is impressive, but one month does not establish a permanent trend.
The bigger question is whether Jeddah can sustain these volumes while maintaining vessel productivity, yard efficiency, truck turnaround and reliable connections to inland markets.
The terminal now has substantially more capacity than it had before the expansion. The challenge is to fill that capacity without allowing congestion and inefficiency to return.
For Saudi Arabia, the timing could hardly be more important.
The Red Sea crisis exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains to maritime chokepoints. It also demonstrated the value of having alternative gateways and sufficient port capacity on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula.
Jeddah is therefore entering a different phase.
The first phase was survival through the Red Sea disruption.
The second was recovery of shipping services.
The next phase is about capturing cargo that may no longer move exactly as it did before 2023.
The July 2026 record may eventually be remembered not simply as DP World Jeddah’s best month since 1999, but as a marker of the point when Jeddah stopped being only a recovery story and started becoming a growth story again.
And that is probably the more important number behind the 221,200 TEUs.
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