Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Port, located in King Abdullah Economic City on the Red Sea coast, has announced the completion of the first phase of integration between the Port Community System and the Customs-affiliated Sanam.

Port Community System is a computerised information system that facilitates access to information and allows efficient implementation of operations at the port.

Sanam, a comprehensive and integrated system to exchange data electronically between all parties involved in import and export from the public and private sectors, has been developed by Tabadul, which is the IT arm of the Customs, enabling the electronic exchange of information between all relevant parties in all sea, air and land ports so that Customs can safely exchange information on import and export data in standard specifications with no change in the validity or customs procedures in accordance with laws and regulations applicable.

Tabadul is working on behalf of the Saudi Customs to complete all the technical integration works with King Abdullah Port using SaudiEDI standard.

The integration will enable King Abdullah Port and the Customs to implement the electronic exchange of cargo manifests and container inspection instructions – which are part of 24-hour customs clearance initiative – as well as locating the containers at the customs inspection yard, said a statement from King Abdullah Port.

“We are proud of this achievement, which is the result of the fruitful cooperation between King Abdullah Port, the Economic Cities Authority (ECA), the Customs, IBM, the leader in information systems development, Tabadul and the National Container Terminal,” said Eng Abdullah Hameedadin, managing director at the Ports Development Company, owner and developer of King Abdullah Port.

“The initiative will ensure the success of the electronic integration process among all parties involved in the port’s operations,” he said.

“Furthermore, it will allow the Customs to work efficiently during two shifts at King Abdullah Port, leading to the development and improvement of customs clearance, which will contribute to achieving the objectives of Vision 2030,” he added.

In the coming period, King Abdullah Port will cooperate with ECA and Tabadul so that all the port’s operations will be fully electronically integrated. This will be achieved by mid-2018 through the completion of electronic connectivity of the data permits for load permit messages, load approval messages, manifest reconciliation messages and container checkout from King Abdullah Port.

Customs will conduct the manual inspection during morning and evening shifts, whereas it was previously done during the morning shift only. This development will surely enable consignees to clear their cargo on the same day instead of waiting till the next day, which will reduce the turnover of incoming containers and will streamline the flow of cargo while increasing workload.

It is worth noting that King Abdullah Port increased its throughput by 14 per cent in first half of 2017, it said.

King Abdullah Port, which is owned by the Ports Development Company, is the first privately owned, developed and operated port in the kingdom. It is characterised by its strategic geographic location and its integrated services using the latest state-of-the-art technology and utilising local and international experts.

The port has been listed as one of the world’s largest maritime shipping lanes, and its development plan is proceeding at a steady pace and with a clear vision towards becoming one of the world’s leading ports. – TradeArabia News Service