DUBAI/FRANKFURT: DiDi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing firm, has invested in Middle East online taxi service Careem in a new partnership deal that marks Didi’s latest international expansion against rival Uber.
DiDi is seeking to turn up the heat on ride-sharing pioneer Uber via a string of partnerships with regional players in Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa and now the Middle East. It has previously done similar deals in Latin America as well as with Uber’s US rival Lyft.
DiDi said on Tuesday it would invest in Careem to strengthen its market position across the region. The two companies said they would cooperate on smart transportation technology, product development and operations.
Careem and DiDi declined to comment on the size of the Chinese company’s investment in Careem.
Founded five years ago, Dubai-based Careem has 12 million customers in 80 cities ranging from Pakistan to Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
It is ahead of Uber in Pakistan and a strong second player to Uber in other regional markets, according to research firm SimilarWeb, which tracks consumer mobile and web usage habits.
DiDi’s ride-hailing system covers cities representing 60 percent of the world’s population in 1,000 cities in North America, Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America, it said.
Over the past few weeks, DiDi has announced a similar investment in Estonian-based ride-hailing firm Taxify to help it to expand in Europe and Africa.
DiDi and its backer SoftBank Group have also said they would contribute the bulk of a new $2.5 billion investment into Grab, a major online taxi player in south east Asia (http://reut.rs/2whGgMZ).
Careem has raised $572 million in funding from a range of investors, including a $150 million round led by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding, according to Crunchbase data. German auto maker Daimler and Japan’s Rakuten are also investors (http://reut.rs/2veX5KT).
Uber operates in nearly 600 cities in 70 countries and reported it had fare revenues around $20 billion last year. It was Silicon Valley’s most valuable private firm when it was last valued at up to $68 billion.
DiDi is the world’s second most valuable venture-backed start-up after Uber, having last been valued at $50 billion according to venture investment tracking firm CB Insights, having raised $13 billion in funding over the past five years.
It has 400 million customers in 400 cities in China. DiDi is backed by Chinese Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent and Japan’s SoftBank, among others. DiDi acquired Uber’s China business a year ago, leaving the US company with a minor stake in DiDi.
Over the past year, Uber has faced regulatory setbacks, employee and driver protests and executive departures, leading to founder Travis Kalanick being pushed aside by the company’s board in June.
China ride-hailing firm DiDi backs Uber rival Careem
China ride-hailing firm DiDi backs Uber rival Careem
Saudi ports container handling rises 2% to 738k TEUs in January: Mawani
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s ports handled 738,111 twenty-foot equivalent units in January, a 2.01 percent increase from a year earlier, driven by a sharp rise in transshipment volumes despite weaker inbound and outbound trade.
Ports overseen by the Saudi Ports Authority, known as Mawani, reported that transshipment containers surged 22.44 percent year on year to 184,019 TEUs, helping offset softer cargo flows.
This comes as Saudi Arabia accelerates efforts to position itself as a global logistics hub under its National Transport and Logistics Strategy, investing heavily in port infrastructure and supply-chain integration to capture a larger share of regional trade flows.
Mawani emphasized in a statement that the increased container handling “delivers multiple economic benefits, including enhanced trade activity, stimulation of maritime-related industries, tourism growth, and strengthened supply chains.”
While overall container volumes grew, the figures revealed a mixed performance across different segments. Inbound container volumes declined 3.23 percent to 284,375 TEUs, while outbound containers fell 3.47 percent to 269,717 TEUs compared to January 2025.
Passenger traffic through Saudi ports jumped 42.27 percent to 143,566 travelers in January, while vehicle volumes rose 3.31 percent to 109,097 units.
Livestock imports showed particularly strong momentum, with ports receiving 886,908 heads of cattle — a 49.86 percent increase compared to 591,824 heads during the same period in 2025.
Liquid bulk cargo registered a marginal increase of 0.28 percent, reaching 14.1 million tonnes. However, total handled tonnage — including general cargo, dry bulk, and liquid bulk — declined 3.04 percent to 19.2 million tonnes. General cargo stood at 839,987 tonnes, while dry bulk reached 4.26 million tonnes.
Vessel traffic experienced a slight decrease of 1.75 percent, with 1,121 ships calling at Saudi ports compared to 1,141 ships in January 2025.
The positive January figures follow a strong 2025 performance, during which Mawani-supervised ports achieved a 10.58 percent annual increase in container throughput, handling 8.32 million TEUs compared to 7.52 million TEUs in 2024. Transshipment containers for full-year 2025 rose 11.78 percent to 1.93 million TEUs.
The total number of outgoing containers rose by 11.72 percent in 2025 to reach 3.1 million TEUs, compared to 2.8 million TEUs, while the total number of incoming containers increased by 8.82 percent to reach 3.2 million TEUs in 2025, compared to 2.9 million TEUs a year earlier.
