Messe Frankfurt Middle East, a major exhibition organiser, has announced plans to host an inaugural Materials Handling Saudi Arabia in Jeddah in November, in its latest expansion into the Saudi market.
The two-day conference and exhibition will take place at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Jeddah, and offer global suppliers and regional manufacturers access to the Kingdom’s thriving logistics, warehouse, freight and cargo industries.
The show is being organised in partnership with Saudi-based Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions (ACE), and will be a biennial event alternating with the flagship Materials Handling show in Dubai.
It also marks Messe Frankfurt Middle East’s second direct foray into the vast Saudi market, after the success in January of the 1st edition of Automechanika in Saudi Arabia, also held in Jeddah.
“Materials Handling Saudi Arabia – our latest development in the Kingdom – together with Materials Handling Middle East, provides a dual platform for intralogistics and supply chain players to access one of the most promising markets in the world,” said Ahmed Pauwels, CEO of Messe Frankfurt ME.
“Saudi’s logistics and materials handling industry is undergoing immense expansion and change, and with it come challenges that are unique to the Kingdom, and we felt the need to provide a dedicated trade event for stakeholders to share market experience and prepare for future developments.”
The inaugural edition of Materials Handling Saudi Arabia will be headlined by a two-day ‘Supply Chain and Logistics Forum’, bringing together industry leaders, academics, and solutions providers.
Muwaffaq Al-Harith, chairman of ACE, said: “The warehousing and logistics sector in Saudi Arabia is currently on the upswing, riding on a phase of sustained industrial and retail expansion, along with infrastructural development. We have seen the demand for focused trade events and we look forward to seeing Materials Handling Saudi Arabia come to fruition.”
Messe Frankfurt has now signed exhibitors including Swisslog, SSI Schaeffer, and Daifuku, Abdul Latif Jameel Industrial Equipment Company (Saudi distributor for Toyota), Log Square and Al Samaani.
According to a report by Colliers International, the Saudi Arabian logistics and warehousing sector is set to witness a considerable boom, driven by the Saudi government’s push to double the industrial sector’s contribution to the economy from 10% today to 20% by 2020.
The Saudi government has so far allocated approximately 45,000ha of land through by Modon for industrial development, of which 25,000ha has already been developed in Jeddah.
Further developments in the pipeline include the construction of the 4th industrial city to the north of Jeddah, and the expansion of facilities at Jeddah’s existing 2nd and 3rd industrial cities.