Port of NEOM: A Benchmark for the Maritime Industry

By Simon West

In an exclusive interview with Breakbulk, Sean Kelly, CEO of Port of NEOM in Saudi Arabia, explains how an ambitious development program is positioning the port as one of the region’s leading gateways for breakbulk and project cargo.

From Issue 3, 2024 of Breakbulk Magazine.

(4-min read)


Against a backdrop of soaring construction activity, Port of NEOM is taking on a significant role in Saudi Arabia’s ambitious economic transformation plans.

The port, located at NEOM’s industrial city of Oxagon, is being reshaped into the main gateway serving NEOM and the kingdom’s northwest region, acting as a crucial hub for the influx of materials and equipment and the outbound distribution of finished products.

Speaking to Breakbulk, Sean Kelly, managing director of Port of NEOM, said the target was to build one of the world’s “most advanced and sustainable ports” and create a new benchmark for the maritime industry.

“The port is Oxagon’s first operational asset and supports the wider economic ambitions of NEOM – from the import of goods and materials required during its development phase and as a new global port serving the region and beyond,” Kelly said.

“We are welcoming an increasing number of ships, including calls from two of the world’s largest shipping lines – MSC and CMA CGM. We have also recently announced a new common feeder service starting in April by Folk Maritime, a new Saudi-owned carrier. These services offer direct connectivity between NEOM and international trade routes via Jeddah.”

Billed as the world’s “largest construction site”, NEOM is one of several so-called giga projects that Saudi Arabia is developing as part of its Vision 2030 plan to pivot the economy away from oil and gas toward more sustainable, private sector-driven industries.

The 26,500-square-kilometer business and logistics zone located in northwestern Tabuk Province will eventually house docks, industrial plants, sports stadiums, clean energy facilities and a hi-tech, smart city dubbed The Line. Such extensive building work is expected to have a major impact on cargo flows in the coming years.

The port, equipped to provide container, general cargo, bulk, and roll-on/roll-off ferry services, has already begun to receive materials for the region’s developing infrastructure and its tenants.

Kelly pointed to the port’s pivotal role in handling out-of-gauge cargo for a new green hydrogen production facility, billed as the world’s largest. Slated to start in 2026, the project, which is being developed by NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, or NGHC, a joint venture between ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM, will deploy some four gigawatts, or GW, of solar and wind energy to produce about 600 tons of green hydrogen per day.

“We are handling shipments of construction materials and equipment including 190 wind turbines comprising 570 wind blades, each 86 meters long and weighing 20 tonnes, plus 22 hydrogen storage tanks, each 100 meters long and weighing 1,000 tonnes,” Kelly said.

“The arrival of these shipments has widened awareness of Port of NEOM among project cargo and breakbulk carriers; we are currently receiving bi-weekly calls from major carriers working on sizable projects across NEOM.”

Primed for the rise in demand, the port has embarked on an extensive development program that includes a new container terminal capable of handling the world’s largest container ships.

Terminal 1 is expected to open in 2025 and will boast a throughput capacity of 1.5 million TEUs per year. The ambitious plans include the construction of 3.5 kilometers of quay walls and an 18.5-meter-deep marine basin, and the widening of the port’s channel to 550 meters.

The port is also expanding and upgrading its general cargo areas to support rising project cargo volumes. By next year, the Port of NEOM will have the capacity to handle 20 million freight tonnes of general cargo and bulk, Kelly said.

“The investment to date is over SAR 12 billion and we will continue to accommodate capacity expansion in line with demand. As part of this investment, Liebherr is delivering 10 mobile harbor cranes. ZPMC will provide ten ship-to-shore gantry cranes, 30 electric rubber-tired gantry cranes and six automated rail mounted gantry cranes. ZPMC will be working with Siemens to deliver the automation components.

“The port has significant reserve design capacity for general, project, bulk and container handling and can be quickly expanded to create space and storage depending on the mix of future demand. Optimizing technology is a key part of how we’re improving storage efficiency, and the port will incorporate automated equipment and management systems.”

Sustainability is also a top priority for Port of NEOM. Its target of net zero emissions supported by 100 percent renewable energy includes solutions such as solar-powered building designs and all-electric equipment.

In addition, quay walls and buildings will use low-carbon steel rather than concrete, 100 percent of material excavated from a channel widening initiative will be reused in regional construction and a pipeline is being used for disposing of dredged material, removing the need for trucks.

Meanwhile, new technologies in the port sector are being tested through the Oxagon x McLaren 2024 international accelerator, a program designed to foster new innovations. According to Kelly, participating scale-ups would work with experts from both the port and McLaren to drive maritime innovation.

“The port offers a live testbed for these technologies, with the opportunity for commercialization,” the executive said. “This first port dedicated Oxagon x McLaren accelerator focuses on several areas of innovation including cargo release optimization, predictive maintenance and automated inspections and autonomous container handling.

“We’ve already received over 100 international applications to the accelerator from scale-ups in the port industry and are excited to see the outcomes from the shortlisted participants in the coming months.”


NEOM, Air Products and Siemens are members of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network, an extensive networking platform for executives operating at the top end of the project supply chain in sectors such as oil and gas, energy and renewables, mining and minerals, construction, forestry, industrial manufacturing and aerospace.

The next in-person meet-ups for BGSN members will be at Breakbulk Europe 2024 on 21-23 May at Rotterdam Ahoy, then Breakbulk Americas 2024 on 15-17 October in Houston.

PHOTOS CREDIT: NEOM