Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: An agreement to build a major warehousing park within the Sohar free zone was signed by the Sohar Port and Freezone, with Warehousing Solutions, a newly established company from Saudi Arabia’s logistics provider Warehousing Projects and Logistics (WPL).
The signing marks the beginning of construction of WPL’s planned 50,000-square meter warehouse park in the Sohar Free zone, of which a further 50,000 square metres (sqm) has been reserved for Phase II, taking the total size of the land lease agreement up to 100,000 sqm.
Warehousing Solutions will construct ready-to-build warehouses, as well as bespoke warehousing for other Sohar tenants on-site in the Free Zone. The new deal comes at just the right time. Throughput at Sohar Port increased dramatically over 2015, with an average of close to one million tonnes of cargo throughput a week recorded last year.
The new highway connecting Sohar directly to Saudi Arabia is due to open in the first quarter of 2016, and the first 200 kilometre segment of the GCC rail network in the Sultanate will start construction this year, linking Sohar to the border of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Governorate of Al Buraimi, with onward rail links to Abu Dhabi.
The signing took place at the Sohar annual business reception, which was held in Muscat. Sultan bin Salim al-Habsi, chairman of the Sohar Port and Free Zone, as well as Sohar Free zone chief executive officers (CEOs) Andre Toet and Jamal Aziz signed the agreement with WPL CEO Abdulaziz Mansoor al-Subaie. The signing ceremony was attended by VIPs and guests from the public and private sectors, as well as representatives from key diplomatic missions in the Sultanate.
Speaking after the signing ceremony, Sohar Free Zone CEO Aziz, said: “We are delighted to have signed this lease agreement with WPL’s new Omani company, Warehousing Solutions. The logistics sector in the Sultanate is projected to grow beyond the $12 billion mark by 2017, and we have set out to make 2016 the “Year of Logistics,” to attract more 2PL and 3PL providers to Sohar. Long-term, thanks to our unique location, the logistics industry has the potential to surpass the hydrocarbons sector as the nation’s economic mainstay.”
WPL's CEO al-Subaie, summed up: “We’ve seen an active interest in warehousing and logistics development emerging in the Sultanate and our presence at Sohar expands our reach across the region to meet these demands. With its strategic location as a logistics hub for the Gulf, the Sohar Free Zone will add to the value proposition we can offer to clients and logistics service providers. We look forward to cooperating with the Free Zone's One-Stop-Shop team to turn our latest expansion into reality.”
The WPL started in 2010 with a land bank of around 500,000 sqm situated in the industrial cities of Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah and Madinah, with the development of pre-built warehouses for logistics services providers and other clients.
It has expanded its portfolio into built-to-suit warehouses and warehousing design, through collaboration with an international consulting firm, complemented with third-party logistics (3PL) services.
Warehousing Solutions will develop and manage the new warehouse park at the Sohar Free Zone—one of WPL’s first major ventures outside the Kingdom.
