In Profile: Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Company

The Northern Container Terminal (NCT) at Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP), managed by Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Company (GSCCO), part of the Gulftainer group of companies, has surpassed yet another major milestone, registering container volumes of 25 million twenty-foot equivalent units (teu) since it started its operation 18 years ago, in 2000.

GSCCO also achieved another major milestone in 2018, passing the 30-million mark in container volume, corresponding to a 50 per cent increase in throughput in just five years across all its facilities which includes the NCT in Jeddah, the Jubail Industrial Port and the Jubail Commercial Port.

The average crane productivity rate at NCT remains more than 30 moves per hour and expansion plans are under review by the authorities to increase terminal capacity in order to handle even larger vessels and, in conjunction with the Saudi Port Authority, Mawani, encourage more trade through the Kingdom’s largest maritime hub. GSCCO’s terminal is already equipped with the industry-leading Navis terminal operating system (TOS) and EmPower, a state-of-the-art employee performance management platform with upgrades due to both before the end of the current concession.

Speaking on the achievements, Richard James, Managing Director of GSCCO, said: “GSCCO remains committed to developing a best-in-class port and logistical infrastructure across its facilities to support the government’s economic diversification agenda as outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030 Strategic Plan.”

He added: “Moreover, we are particularly keen to continue our long-term and fruitful partnership with Mawani on a more permanent basis for the future and remain especially grateful for the organisation’s recent warm encouragement to continue our partnership long into Saudi Arabia’s future.”

As the largest modern container terminal in Saudi Arabia, NCT regularly handles 14,000-teu mega-vessels following the maiden call of Evergreen’s Tampa Triumph in May 2017. The terminal has also adopted an innovative in-house spreader design to extend the capability of the ship-to-shore (STS) gantry crane, enabling it to reach higher container tiers. NCT is currently the only terminal in JIP to possess Slip Sheet technology for the loading and unloading of their containers as opposed to traditional palletization resulting in space optimization of up to 30 per cent more product per container and 15 per cent reduction in transportation costs. In addition, the port’s scanning facilities have undergone an upgrade to align with Saudi Customs’ 24-hour clearance initiative.

NCT has seven berths with a total length of 1,684 metres, in addition to storage area spanning 1,075,320 square metres, designed to handle up to 4 million teu. The terminal features 11 super post-Panamax cranes with a lifting capacity of 65 tonnes each, and 35 rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes, both with twin lift capability, as well as modern equipment units for yard service. Parts of the yards are equipped with gantries and electrical points for the storage of reefer containers with a current capacity of 2,300 plug points, which can be scaled up based on demand.

A number of exciting announcements from GSCCO are due in the first half of 2019.