Gulftainer accelerates expansion of Sharjah’s Khor Fakkan port

• Port is crucial alternative to Hormuz
• $2bn investment in expansion
• Containers up from 8k to 65k weekly

UAE logistics company Gulftainer has accelerated the expansion of Khor Fakkan Port in Sharjah after the Iran conflict triggered a surge in container traffic.

Group chief executive Farid Belbouab said the company had brought forward the $2 billion investment in port capacity, logistics parks and shipping services after trade flows were rerouted away from more vulnerable routes during the crisis.

Before the Iran conflict, the strait typically handled about 130 vessel transits daily. Traffic had begun recovering since last month’s ceasefire talks, although shipping remains below pre-conflict levels. US president Donald Trump has now said the ceasefire deal with Iran is “over”.

“The foundation of this vision was already in place over the past 12 months,” Belbouab told AGBI. “Of course, the crisis has accelerated that vision.”

Khor Fakkan, which sits on the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hormuz, became a critical alternative gateway as shipping lines and cargo owners sought greater certainty during the conflict. The port handled about 8,000 containers a week before the crisis; that has jumped to 65,000 containers a week, according to Belbouab.

The surge forced the operator to rapidly reconfigure the terminal. Truck movements have risen from around 100 a day to 8,500 a day, with capacity ultimately being expanded to 12,000 trucks daily.

“Our aim is not to capture 100 percent of the market, but to provide certainty and predictability,” Belbouab said.

As uncertainty remains over the safety and security of the Strait of Hormuz, Gulftainer estimates it is now handling 80-90 percent of UAE container demand during the disruption.

The company is increasing Khor Fakkan commercial terminal’s capacity from 3.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard measure used in the shipping industry to describe container capacity) to 5 million TEUs annually within three months through the delivery of new cranes and yard equipment, including three ship-to-shore gantry cranes and 12 gantries. A new berth is also being developed.

The three-year masterplan aims to ramp up capacity to more than 10 million TEUs.

The expansion comes as Gulf supply chains adapt to heightened geopolitical risk. During the conflict, concerns over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf pushed companies to seek alternative logistics routes, while ports on the UAE’s east coast gained strategic importance because they sit outside the Arabian Gulf.

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Gulftainer is also building what it describes as the Gulf’s largest inland logistics network. The Al Dhaid and Sajaa logistics parks in Sharjah will provide 2.3 million TEUs of inland capacity, including warehousing, bonded storage (warehousing where imported goods can be stored without paying customs duties or import taxes until they enter the domestic market), cold-chain facilities and distribution centres.

In parallel, the company has launched GT Maritime, a shipping operation that has grown from a few hundred containers before the conflict to more than 10,000 containers a week using 10 chartered vessels, connecting China, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, India and Pakistan to the UAE.

New services to East Africa and the Red Sea are due to be announced in the coming weeks.

Belbouab said Gulftainer had hired more than 900 staff in the first two weeks of March to cope with the surge in demand.

The company has also signed an agreement to connect Khor Fakkan to the Etihad Rail network, creating a corridor linking sea, road and rail across the UAE and the wider GCC.