The Port of Shuwaikh (also Ash-Ashuwaykh) is Kuwait’s most important port. Located immediately west of Kuwait city, it lies on the southern shores of Kuwait Bay off the Persian Gulf. The electric power station and water desalinization plant in the Port of Shuwaikh supply Kuwait city. In 1985, almost three thousand people lived in the Port of Shuwaikh.

The area around the Port of Shuwaikh is partly industrial and partly rural. The city contains the popular Friday market called Souq al-Juma, where people haggle for clothes, material, carpets, furniture, plants and animals, souvenirs, antiques, and new and used goods.

The Port of Shuwaikh serves ocean-going vessels at its deep-water berths, and it has ample modern container facilities.

The Kuwait Ports Authority manages and operates the Port of Shuwaikh. It is the country’s most important commercial port and covers 320 hectares of land and 120 hectares of water surface.

The Navigation Channel inside Kuwait Bay is dredged to a depth of 8.5 meters (minimum tide level), and it is about eight kilometers long. At any tide, the Port of Shuwaikh can receive vessels to 7.5 meters draft. At high tide, vessels to 9.5 meters draft can enter and leave the Port of Shuwaikh.

The Port of Shuwaikh contains 21 berths with a total length of 4055 meters. Fourteen of the berths have a depth of 10 meters, four are 8.5 meters deep, and three have alongside depth of 6.7 meters.

Cargo vessels traveling through the Port of Shuwaikh include merchant ships and other vessels that include liners, tramps, fishing trawlers, and small passenger ships as well as cargo-laden container and roll-on/roll-off vessels and barges.

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