The industrial port system of Saudi Arabia

This thesis investigates one of the most important spheres within which the interactions of port functions and urban processes may be observed and analysed, namely cityport industrialisation. The study area, Saudi Arabia, represents an interesting case: an oil-rich developing country that, in a relatively short time, has managed to establish a reasonable infrastructural and service base for a modern industrial port system. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part establishes, in two chapters, the scope and purpose of the research by introducing the aims, methods and organisation of the study on the one hand, and by providing a theoretical approach to cityport industrialisation on the other. The second part surveys the factors influencing the Saudi Arabian industrial port system by analysing, in three chapters, the factors affecting port performance and those which condition the country's industrial development. The third and principal part of the thesis, in three chapters, focusses on the Saudi Arabian national cityport industrialisation system itself. Seaports are analysed in terms of their installations, traffic and spheres of operation. The country's two major maritime industrial development areas (MIDAs) at Jubail and Yanbu are investigated by reviewing the design, development and growth of multinational and multiplant enterprises. The thesis ends with an account of port-city industrial development in Saudi Arabia as a whole. The conclusions empahsise the country's maritime industrial development in the wider context of national economic planning; underline the general relevance and the distinctiveness of the investigation; and point towards further research objectives.