Economic prosperity came to Saudi Arabia about half a century ago when mineral oil was found, and it soon after started exports to many countries.

This economic growth brought infrastructure development and rapid industrialisation which gave rise to the increasing movement of commodities in and out of the country.

The trade expansion in the 1970s called for the need to start a national maritime company of its own in order to provide reliable and cost-effective ocean transportation of goods to and from Saudi Arabia. Many countries have benefitted by utilising the services of the two historical and strategic Saudi ports of Jeddah on the Red Sea and Dammam on the Gulf.

In 1979, the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) came into existence by the promulgation of a Royal Decree as a joint stock company with 100 per cent Saudi capital. The present capital outlay of the company is SR2 billion ($533 million), of which about 71 per cent is owned by the public and 29 per cent by the government of Saudi Arabia.

NSCSA started its shipping service in 1980 by acquiring two Ro-Ro vessels. Each had a capacity of 23,000 DWT. Subsequently, the company diversified its activities in the field of chemicals and crude oil transportation by acquiring tonnage of chemical tankers and VLCCs.

Today, NSCSA owns a modern tanker fleet specialised in the transportation of petrochemicals, with separate storage facilities enabling the carriage of more than one type of product on each trip.

NSCSA's VLCC fleet consists of double bottom tankers built to the highest manufacturing specifications and environmental protection standards, which transports crude oil, petrochemicals and general cargo.

Crude oil

A large quantity of Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports is carried by NSCSA VLCCs. Five VLCCs were acquired in 1996/97 and four in 2001/2. The nine VLCCs have a combined transportation capacity of 19 million barrels, or about 2.7 million DWT.

The tankers can sail from the Gulf to the US and back without refuelling. Most of the VLCCs are chartered out to Vela International Marine Ltd of Saudi Aramco.

Petrochemicals

With the increase in demand for the Kingdom's petrochemical products, NSCSA decided to acquire a fair share of the petrochemicals transportation business with its assets, own resources and track record in the maritime service.

In 1985, Uqba Ibn Nafe was built and subsequently chartered out to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. It has a capacity of 43,000 DWT. In 1986, the Arabian Chemical Carrier (ACC) was established, and tanker Al Farabi was acquired, which has a capacity of 41,400 DWT. This was also chartered out to Sabic.

The potential was seen in the transport of petrochemicals, and the National Chemical Carriers Ltd Co (NCC) was founded in 1990 as a joint venture with Sabic, where NSCSA holds 80 per cent equity and Sabic 20 per cent.

NCC at present owns 14 modern petrochemical products vessels.

General cargo

NSCSA presently operates liner service carrying general cargo with its four Ro-Ro ships between the Arabian Gulf-Indian Subcontinent and US/Canada (East Coast) and US (Gulf) route.

This year, NSCSA also embarked on NVOOC and freight forwarding business with a focus on serving the exporters and importers in the Middle East.

NSCSA has invested considerably on handling and maintaining its owned containers. Jeddah Islamic Port is the company's most important centre for container handling, storage, repairs and maintenance. A container service yard was set up in Jeddah in 1997 to facilitate these activities. A specialised workshop in the yard takes up repair jobs and refurbishes containers according to international standards.

A subsidiary, Mideast Ship Management Ltd (MSML) was formed in 1997 as a joint venture between NSCSA and Acomarit of Scotland with 80 per cent and 20 per cent equity respectively. MSML's main business is ship management, besides acting as a shipping agent in the UAE for NSCSA.

NSCSA is headquartered in Riyadh and functions through various regional offices, subsidiaries and a network of agency offices.