Bahri — Company directory

Riyadh-listed carrier hauling crude, refined fuels, chemicals and dry bulk in one of the world's largest VLCC and chemical tanker fleets, plus project cargo.

Bahri is the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia, a Riyadh-based shipping and logistics group whose vessels carry crude oil, chemicals and refined products, dry bulk cargoes and project freight. It was created by royal decree in October 1978 and traded for decades as NSCSA before adopting the Bahri name. The fleet of more than 107 ships, with further vessels on order, calls at about 150 ports worldwide, and Bahri publishes no general enquiries e-mail address, handling contact through a web form.

Ownership and listing

Bahri is a listed Saudi joint-stock company. Its shares are held 22.55 per cent by the Public Investment Fund, 20 per cent by Saudi Aramco Development Company and 57.45 per cent by public shareholders on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul). That ownership structure underpins its role as a national carrier: after the 2014 merger with Vela it became the exclusive VLCC carrier for Saudi Aramco CIF crude sales, and share capital reached SAR 3.9 billion in the same year.

The fleet by segment

The group reports the following fleet:

50 very large crude carriers. Bahri Oil owns and operates what the company describes as the world's largest fleet of double-hulled VLCCs, each able to lift about 2.2 million barrels, with a length of 333 metres and a service speed of 15 knots; total VLCC capacity is given as 13.7 million deadweight tonnes.
33 chemical and product tankers of 46,000 deadweight tonnes each, with a beam of 32.2 metres and a combined capacity of about 1.7 million deadweight tonnes for liquid chemicals, clean petroleum products and vegetable oils.
13 dry bulk carriers. The Kamsarmax ships are 228.99 metres long with a 32.26 metre beam and a 14.5 knot speed, and move roughly 1.3 million tonnes a year under a long-term contract with ARASCO.
Eight multipurpose vessels, including the multideck RoRoConPlus ships of Bahri Logistics, which are 225 metres long, carry 26,000 deadweight tonnes at 17 knots and have a ramp 15.5 metres wide and 6.8 metres high, with heavy-lift cranes for project cargo.

Milestones from general cargo to energy logistics

The company chartered its first vessels and moved into US trades in 1979, joined the general cargo segment as a national carrier in 1983, and diversified into chemical transport through a joint venture with SABIC in 1990. It opened its first offices in the United States in 1991 and in the UAE in 1993, carried crude oil for the first time and brought technical ship management in-house in 1996, expanded into India in 2001 and began freight forwarding in 2002. A dry bulk joint venture with ARASCO followed in 2010. Fleet renewal came through orders for six RoRoConPlus vessels in 2011, five Kamsarmax ships in 2012 and ten VLCCs in 2015, with further VLCC deliveries from Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2017 and 2018. In 2016 Bahri launched a USD 1.5 billion shipping fund with APICORP, and in 2017 it set up BahriBolloré Logistics and Bahri-Bunge Dry Bulk and agreed to build an offshore shipyard at the King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services at Ras Al Khair. Later milestones include a 2020 order for ten chemical tankers from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, the National Grain Company joint venture with SALIC, and a floating desalination plant project launched in 2022.

Business units and services

Bahri is organised into six units: Bahri Oil, Bahri Chemicals, Bahri Dry Bulk, Bahri Integrated Logistics, Bahri Ship Management and Bahri Marine. Alongside tanker and bulk shipping, the group provides ship agency, chartering, technical ship management and integrated logistics, and it maintains a global network page listing its offices and agency coverage.

Recent results and 2026 activity

Bahri reported a record net profit of SAR 2.75 billion for the second quarter of 2026, published on 29 July 2026. On 21 July 2026 Bahri Line announced a newbuild programme for dual-fuel LNG-powered RoCon vessels, extending the group's earlier fleet renewal orders for VLCCs and Kamsarmax bulk carriers. In August 2026 it opened two new ship agency offices, at Yanbu and Ras Tanura, and signed a memorandum of understanding with Red Sea Global covering logistics collaboration. On 15 September 2026 the group completed a USD 263 million refinancing aimed at broadening its international banking relationships.