The project at Dammam, the capital of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, will be on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, said port director general Naeem ibn Ibrahim Al-Naeem.
King Abdul Aziz port is the Kingdom's second largest port after Jeddah in terms of capacity and one of the largest in the Persian Gulf.
"Studies have been completed on the new container terminal and tenders will be invited within a few months to implement the project, which is open to Saudi and foreign companies," said Al-Naeem.
The new facilities will raise the port's handling capacity from 1.5 million TEUs to 3.5 million TEUs and will be complemented by a railway expansion project linking the Kingdom's east and west regions.
Development costs for the new terminal have been estimated at some $267 million and a contract has been signed for a $9 million upgrade of current facilities.
According to Al-Naeem, the upgrading works will cover 40% of the port's 39 existing wharves; the remaining wharves are rented to the private sector.
Meanwhile, the neighbouring Kingdom of Bahrain is looking to boost its maritime industries with the opening of its new port of Khalifa bin Salman, operated by APM Terminals BV.
Stakeholders want Khalifa bin Salman, due to be operational later this year, to be a hub port for Middle East Gulf cargo.
Some forecasts expect container throughput at the world's smallest Arab state to more than treble within five years of the port's coming on-stream.
APM Terminals, which signed a 25-year concession for Khalifa bin Salman and the existing port of Mina Salman in November 2006, has already invested more than $60 million in modern equipment and systems.
The Emirate of Dubai is also advancing its container handling capabilities. Its port of Jebel Ali has already upped its container handling capacity to 11.5 million TEUs per year via on-going expansion with that figure set to top 14 million TEUs per year by 2008.
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