Timelapse Shows New Mega Port at World's Biggest Construction Site
Newsweek has contacted Neom and the Saudi government for comment.
The pilot underscores Saudi Arabia's push to accelerate progress on Neom's key components amid growing scrutiny over delays and cost overruns. The port is central to the kingdom's Vision 2030 plans to transform itself into a global logistics hub and reduce its reliance on oil.
Oxagon announced its first trial shipment from Egypt to Iraq via the Port of Neom, which seeks to reduce transit times and logistics costs.
The new port city has a strategic location in one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes connecting Asia, Africa and Europe.
"This pilot cut down transit time from Egypt by over 50 percent," the company said in a statement this week. It opens doors for worldwide trade into Iraq via the Port of Neom, it continued.
Cargo ships typically pass through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, navigate Bab el-Mandeb, cross the Gulf of Aden and Strait of Hormuz, and enter the Persian Gulf-docking at Iraqi ports, such as Umm Qasr, before inland road transport to Baghdad or Erbil.
The new port is an upgrade of the existing Duba Port, of which management was transferred to Neom in 2022.
Sean Kelly, the managing director of the Port of Neom, said in video released by Oxagon: "The port is catalyst for overall economic development for the northwest of the kingdom and for the broader region. The intermodal corridor opening up this historical trade lane is a primary initiative in this effort."
Mousa Albargi, Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of logistics and services, said in the video: "Our logistics corridor is not only connecting Saudi importers and exporters, it is serving key destinations and origins in Africa, the Middle East and even beyond to the center of Asia."
Nadhmi al-Nasr, the former Neom CEO, said in 2023: "The Port of NEOM will be pivotal to the continued commercial competitiveness, economic diversification and maritime trade ambitions of the Kingdom. Our vision is to build one of the world's most technologically advanced, efficient and sustainable ports with the first fully integrated and automated supply chain and logistics network, and this first phase of development is a step towards realizing that."
Neom seeks to launch the port's first terminal by 2026.
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"It fails to offer any meaningful support for independent farmers—who face increasing challenges from low prices, trade wars and the climate crisis—and the communities they feed," was the response of the National Family Farm Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for small- and medium-scale family farmers and fishing communities. And to others, while subsidy programs are a step in the right direction, they fall short of addressing the structural issues plaguing U.S. agriculture. "There are provisions included in the Big Beautiful Bill that benefit farmers and ranchers," the California Farm Bureau said. "However, a comprehensive farm bill is still needed." Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Agriculture via email for comment.
