Gulf container traffic collapses 94% as Hormuz stays shut to cargo

Summary

• Container ships crossing the Gulf fell to 240 in six months, down 94% year-on-year.
• Non-oil cargo remains blocked seven months into the US-Israeli war on Iran.
• Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain now depend on a Saudi land bridge for imports.

The latest

Container traffic through the Gulf has all but disappeared, with 240 ships transiting between March 1 and September 7, 2026 — a 94% drop from 4,198 a year earlier, according to maritime analyst Xeneta. Nearly seven months after US and Israeli strikes on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut to everything but oil, rerouting the region's supply chains through Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Details

• The freight shock: Shipping a 40ft container from China to the UAE has cost up to $10,000 for most of this year, against $1,250 before Iran largely closed the strait, the Financial Times reported. Marine insurance per container rose from $120 to $1,000, and transit times have doubled to 60 days.
• The services gone: Of 99 container services operating in or through the Gulf before the crisis — about 10% of the global container fleet — only 11 remain active, the FT reported. Ten shuttle within the Gulf itself; the eleventh is a dedicated Iran-China service.
• Oil versus everything else: US President Donald Trump says the strait is open for oil, with the US Navy escorting tankers. It stays effectively shuttered to LNG, refined fuels, petrochemicals, fertiliser feedstock and helium. Qatar, the world's second-largest LNG producer, has exported negligible volumes of gas since the war began.
• Bulk exports collapse: Limestone shipped through the strait fell from 2.93 million tonnes in January to zero in August, per commodities platform Kpler. Sulphur dropped from 1.45m tonnes to 120,000; nitrogen fertiliser from 1.1m to 340,000 tonnes; corn from 1.74m to 310,000 tonnes.
• Jebel Ali sidelined: Dubai's Jebel Ali — the world's ninth-busiest port, handling roughly 40,000 TEU a day pre-war across 27 berths and 120 cranes — has been cut off from open-sea container traffic. Volumes have shifted to the far smaller Khor Fakkan, with 6 berths and 18 cranes, now straining under the load.
• Oman's windfall: Omani ports, which sit outside the strait, have seen cargo volumes rise 69% this year, according to official Omani data. Transit truck traffic to and from Oman has nearly tripled, reaching 116,088 movements so far in 2026.
• The land bridge: Businesses in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait are trucking or flying goods in via Saudi Arabia. Maersk chief executive Vincent Clerc described cargo arriving at Jeddah, trucked to Dammam, then shipped to Qatar. Hapag-Lloyd says the detour adds 7-10 days and $50 million a week. DHL Global Forwarding calculates one 20,000-TEU ship equals 10,000 trucks or 4,000 cargo flights.
• Fiscal strain: Jason Tuvey of Capital Economics assessed that supply pressure is straining Gulf budgets, with every government except the UAE absorbing the cost of holding local fuel prices steady. He said Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain face a heavy revenue hit, and expects Saudi Arabia to keep cutting spending.
• Qatar's response: Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani announced on Sunday a new Qatar Investment Authority division, Doha Investment, to manage domestic holdings, Reuters reported. Commerce Minister Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani said it will initially oversee 45 state-owned enterprises, roughly a third of the fund's assets.
• Building around Hormuz: DP World, which operates Jebel Ali, is constructing two terminals at Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman coast, with about half of Jebel Ali's general cargo capacity, to cut UAE exposure to the strait. Construction is expected to take around two years.

Background

The Qatar Investment Authority was established in 2005 with a charter centred on deploying capital abroad. Research firm Global SWF estimates its assets under management at $580 billion. Sheikh Faisal called the new domestic division a consolidation of existing holdings rather than a new creation, saying it had been under consideration for more than a decade.

Between the lines

The Doha announcement and the trade data point the same way. With LNG exports negligible and Qatar's non-hydrocarbon economy already at 65.5% of real GDP in Q3 2026, redirecting sovereign capital inward looks less like diversification strategy than revenue substitution. Scott Livermore of Oxford Economics Middle East assessed that food prices are especially exposed, with producers reporting higher input costs driven largely by shipping disruption.

What's next

Watch whether Houthi pressure on Bab al-Mandeb closes a second corridor, how quickly Khor Fakkan and Omani ports absorb diverted volumes, and whether Doha Investment names the 45 enterprises it will manage.

Source: Financial Times, Reuters