JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s maritime and logistics sector has absorbed nine months of regional conflict without interruption to trade, and Red Sea ports are handling record cargo volumes, the group CEO of shipping, logistics and freight company ABSA Al Barrak Group said on Wednesday.
Speaking to Arab News on the opening day of the Saudi Maritime and Logistics Congress in Jeddah, Akshay Anand said the geography of the Kingdom provided options few countries in a comparable position would have.
“From a logistics perspective, God has blessed us with seas on both sides,” he said. “When the Strait of Hormuz became blocked, the Red Sea was open.
“The Red Sea had its own issues and problems over the past couple of years, but things improved and a lot of cargo started flowing through it.”
The pressure had now shifted to the southern approach to the Red Sea.
“With the current issues around Bab Al-Mandab, we face a constant challenge,” Anand said.
Even so, he added, volumes have held up: “Cargo has continued to flow through the Red Sea ports. We have had record cargo volumes through all the Red Sea ports at the moment.”
He credited inland capacity for absorbing the strain, describing the domestic transport network as “very robust,” and highlighting logistics as one of the priority sectors under the Saudi Vision 2030 plan for national development and diversification.
His comments came as the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said air defenses had intercepted and destroyed five explosive-laden drones launched by the Houthi militia in Yemen toward the Madinah and Eastern regions of the Kingdom on Wednesday.
Coalition spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said there were no civilian casualties or damage to vital installations, and described the attacks as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. Arabic-language reports later said a ballistic missile was also intercepted over Riyadh.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh reopened to a limited number of domestic flights on Wednesday, 11 days after it closed following a Houthi missile strike on its terminal complex on Oct. 10 that killed 13 people and injured more than 300. Saudia and FlyNas were operating flights, but Lufthansa and Air France have canceled all services into the capital through mid-November.
Anand framed the maritime and logistics event as part of the answer to threats to the Kingdom.
“The fact that we in Saudi Arabia can still hold an event of this magnitude, despite the troubles we are facing, is testament to our resilience as a nation,” he said.
“I think the biggest message from our industry, and as a nation, should be to show the scale of the event we are holding here in Jeddah; to show what we are still managing to achieve despite the troubles we are facing.”
Earlier, during the opening panel at the congress, Anand argued that trade adapts rather than halts its operations in response to challenges, citing as an example of this how cargo was now traveling to the Kingdom from Turkiye through Syria.
“I have always said that global trade has to flow despite any roadblocks, and that is exactly what is happening,” he later told Arab News.
He also called for the costs of disruptions to be distributed more evenly across the supply chain.
“Costs should not be imposed on the weakest party. They have to be shared among everyone,” Anand said, arguing that contractual frameworks and arbitration panels needed to be updated to reflect a more collaborative approach.
The two-day Saudi Maritime and Logistics Congress at the Jeddah Superdome concludes on Thursday.