Building Saudi Arabia’s Global Project Cargo Hub on the Red Sea | Lars Greiner, RSGT
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Why is Saudi Arabia emerging as a top-tier growth market for project cargo?
So it's a young, vibrant population that are now rediscovering the world. And it's so exciting to see how they are emerging into this world and what they're bringing with them. I'm a very big believer, though, in winning your home game first. So right now we're in the process of winning the home game. We've won the first quarter. We've got a long way to go. But certainly the plan is to grow internationally, to develop an international multi-purpose portfolio.
It's Project Cargo Professionals. We are here in Dubai, and I have the pleasure of being with Lars Greiner, CEO, multi-purpose business at Red Sea Gateway Terminal. End of a busy, big week. How was it for you, Lars?
It has indeed been very busy, very productive. Breakback Conference has always been a chance to meet old friends as well as new ones, and the industry continues growing. It's nice to see all the people coming into it and the way it's changing.
And you've had a global career. Tell us a bit about that, your background, what you've been doing up until now, and how that helps you in your new role today in Saudi Arabia.
I kind of like to say that I sort of fell into it by accident with a family that came into shipping. I tried to escape, but I couldn't. I think I've spent half my career managing assets and the other half telling people how to manage assets. So at the end of the day, I'm allergic to strategies that don't survive the first operations. But I've had the privilege of seeing both success and failure in those from inside and from outside. Having worked for shipping lines, having worked for cargo owners, having worked for forwarding companies and so the move into terminal first consulting and then terminal management has was a very natural one because your ports are your strategic asset and the one thing that cannot be moved.
Ships, you can move different ports, trucks the same, railway the same, but your ports remain where they are.
And so talk a bit more about your current role then and what attracted you to it.
How are Red Sea ports modernizing to support global logistics?
So the opportunity in the Red Sea multi-purpose business developed over several years. Originally, the Saudi government had the intention to privatize these all the way back in 2019. And I was aware of it at the time in my role as a consultant. And in 2021, I started consulting to Red Sea Gateway terminals to consult to them as to how best to approach, at that stage, the tender to this. Things changed, the government changed, and it was decided to do a direct negotiation with the government for a PPP. um and when rsgt approached me with opportunity to take over this business first to acquire these terminals and then to grow internationally with a multi-purpose business i saw it as a fantastic opportunity i think one of the things that one sees too little of is focused multi-purpose terminal businesses around the world there are most people can name offhand um
the five biggest container terminal operators, but I would challenge anyone to do that for multipurpose terminal operators. So I'm very excited to take this role on and to start running with it. So as the name suggests, you guys are on the West Coast only? At the moment, we're only on the West Coast. Of course, we have global ambitions and we are the Saudi national champion for ports. Our container division has, I'm sure you're aware, recently acquired Bangladesh. and is in talks on a couple of other projects at the moment. And for Alsens, we are at the moment discussing Djibouti as well as a potential multi-purpose terminal expansion outside of Saudi already.
But you were telling me earlier that you think the West Coast is really where the opportunity is.
Absolutely. I believe very strongly that the Red Sea is a key junction point in the international business. One has its challenges from time to time, but I think most areas do. But there is so much opportunity there. On the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia, we have... a lot of capacity that needs to be optimized um and so we're we're in the right place at the right time to really start developing and with saudi vision 2030 to become a global hub um we have the facilities we do some work we need to do on them um and some expertise we are now bringing to it to really create world-class terminals that can serve as hubs between east west but also between east and south
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why is Saudi Arabia emerging as a top-tier growth market for project cargo?
0:00–1:54
2
How are Red Sea ports modernizing to support global logistics?
1:54–5:54
3
What is the significance of Vision 2030 for Saudi Arabia's infrastructure projects?
5:54–10:08
4
What operational challenges does the logistics industry face in Saudi Arabia?
10:08–14:47
5
How is local talent being developed in the Saudi logistics sector?
14:47–18:22
6
What role does cooperation between ports play in project cargo logistics?
18:22–23:35
7
How is the World Cup impacting logistics and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia?
23:35–25:18
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Project Cargo Professionals
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