A Dubai-based logistics giant announced a deal with the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday to develop a new port system that would bypass the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global oil and gas shipments where the war in Iran has throttled traffic.
The development would create two new shipping terminals off the country’s east coast for container and cargo ships, increasing the company’s container capacity by roughly 13 percent, according to the firm, DP World. That would expand shipping infrastructure in Fujairah, an Indian Ocean port city that serves as a way of bypassing the strait.
Through a vast network of ports and terminals around the world, DP World handles about 10 percent of global container traffic annually. The new terminals would reduce the firm’s dependence on a flagship piece of Emirati infrastructure — Jebel Ali, the seaport on the Persian Gulf that is the busiest in the Middle East, where activity has plummeted during the war.
The chairman of Fujairah Ports Authority, Sheikh Saleh Bin Mohammed Al Sharqi described the project as an “important milestone” in Fujairah’s development as “one of the region’s most important maritime gateways.”
The Emirati effort to diversify supply chains reflects a market rattled by renewed attacks on vessels in the region, where Iran and the United States have jostled for control of the waters with two competing blockades.
While before the war, more than 100 ships a day routinely passed through the strait, the daily numbers of crossings have fallen to double-digits or lower in recent days amid the fighting.
The disruptions caused by attacks — or even just the risk of them — during the conflict have prompted countries to seek alternative routes to move millions of barrels of oil. Yet even those options may narrow further now that the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, which controls a significant part of Yemen, has declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.
