By: OrePulse

Mawani, Saudi Arabia's Ports Authority, said Wednesday that it has added a new container shipping service to Jeddah Islamic Port, extending the Red Sea gateway's links with ports in China, Egypt and Jordan.

The service, named CRC and operated by Emirates Shipping Line, runs through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. It connects Jeddah Islamic Port with five ports in total: Shanghai and Ningbo in China, together with a third Chinese port named variously as Nansha or Taicang in different reports [uncertain]; Sokhna in Egypt; and Aqaba in Jordan.

Vessels deployed on the route have a capacity of 1,250 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEU, the standard measure of container-carrying capacity, Mawani said.

The authority said the new route brought to 35 the number of shipping services it has added at Saudi ports in 2026. It cast the addition as part of a continuing drive to raise the competitiveness of the Kingdom's ports, widen their connections with global markets and attract additional carriers to call at Saudi terminals.

Mawani said the move would add capacity to the Kingdom's container network and help shippers move import and export cargo more efficiently through its ports. The authority linked the step to broader goals of strengthening logistics operations and maritime trade across the Saudi port system.

Mawani connected the new route to the objectives of Saudi Arabia's National Strategy for Transport and Logistics Services, under which the Kingdom aims to become a logistics link between three continents. Mawani did not disclose further details of the strategy in connection with this specific service.

Mawani, which runs Saudi Arabia's commercial ports, cast Jeddah Islamic Port as a leading hub on the Red Sea coast, pointing to its location and operating capacity as factors tying trade between three continents together, supporting wider global commerce and cementing the port's standing as one of the Red Sea's principal logistics points of entry.

Jeddah Islamic Port has added a series of new shipping services through the year, of which the CRC route is the latest, according to Mawani's count. The authority did not provide a breakdown of the other 34 services or specify which carriers or routes they involved.