Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP), on the Red Sea coast, handled 3.326 million TEUs containers in 2008, up from 3.068 million TEUs a year ago, the Middle East and Africa News Digest reported.

JIP loaded 1.651 million TEUs, an increase from 1.533 million TEUs, while 1.675 million TEUs were unloaded, compared with 1.534 million.

The port handled 42.721 million tonnes of cargo in 2008, compared with 42.158 million tonnes in the previous year. Loaded cargo rose to 14.826 million tonnes from 14.39 million tonnes, while unloaded cargo totalled 30.895 million tonnes, an increase from 27.768 million tonnes.

Solid bulk cargo traffic stood at 5.804 million tonnes, while liquid bulk cargo, excluding oil, was 277,031 tonnes.