How many logistics and customs clearance companies are in Saudi Arabia?
Logistics services, customs clearance, freight forwarding and transport brokers.
28.5K
active registrations list logistics, customs & freight forwarding activities — 2% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
28,538 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list logistics, customs & freight forwarding activities as of 16 September 2026 — 2% of all classified registrations, the 38th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
7,691 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +7.3% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (12,205), Jeddah (4,937), Dammam (2,106) lead. Relative to its size, Dammam is the most concentrated: logistics and customs clearance companies make up 1.7× the share they hold nationally.
63% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 100,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 28,538
- 2% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 7,691
- +7.3% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 63%
- 17,965 of 28,538
- Median company capital
- SAR 100k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where logistics and customs clearance companies are registered
Column height: logistics and customs clearance companies by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh12,2051.4×
- Jeddah4,9371.6×
- Dammam2,1061.7×
- Makkah1,6541.2×
- Madinah8270.8×
- Khobar8051.3×
- Buraydah4530.6×
- Jubail3860.5×
- Najran3730.5×
- Hafar Al-Batin3410.6×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Logistics, customs & freight forwarding: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Logistics services13,470Activity code 522931
- Customs clearance3,252Activity code 522911
- Receiving, unloading and shelving goods2,319Activity code 522923
- Freight forwarding and shipping agencies1,586Activity code 522912
- Weighing and measuring services1,204Activity code 522917
- Ride-hailing app intermediaries998Activity code 522934
- Taxi dispatch833Activity code 522922
- Container packing and unpacking649Activity code 522914
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- LLC17,51861.4%
- Sole proprietorship10,52436.9%
- JSC2971%
- SJSC800.3%
- General partnership440.2%
- Foreign branch320.1%
- Limited partnership260.1%
- GCC branch170.1%
Logistics, customs & freight forwarding by city
More in transport & logistics
Common questions
How many logistics and customs clearance companies are there in Saudi Arabia?
28,538 active commercial registrations list logistics, customs & freight forwarding activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most logistics and customs clearance companies?
Riyadh, with 12,205 — 42.8% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 4,937.
Is the number of logistics and customs clearance companies growing?
7,691 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +7.3% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in logistics, customs & freight forwarding in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in logistics, customs & freight forwarding?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.