Mediterranean Shipping Co has extended its Far East-India Shikra service to two Gulf gateways that sit outside the Strait of Hormuz. The service now calls at Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates and Sohar in Oman1.
The revised rotation runs Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Singapore, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Khor Fakkan, Sohar and back to Dalian, according to Container News1. MSC will raise the Shikra deployment to 15 containerships of about 14,000 to 24,300 TEU, the report said1. Container News described the change as an extension beyond the service's previous Far East-India coverage1.
That matters because the cargo does not stop at the coast. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are still reached by feeder or truck, and those legs now carry a large share of the cost.
The bypass is built on feeders and trucks
Fujairah sits about 70 nautical miles from the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Fujairah Ports Authority, which calls it the only multi-purpose seaport on the UAE's eastern coastline5. Khor Fakkan, a Sharjah exclave on the Gulf of Oman, is the region's only natural deep-sea port, with 16 metre quays6.
DP World has been assembling the land side. Its global chief operating officer for parks and economic zones, Abdulla Al Hashimi, said the operator diverted ships bound for the Gulf to its terminals at Mundra, Nhava Sheva and Kochi. It then used feeders to reach Khor Fakkan and Fujairah, he said2. DP World bought more than 700 trucks over eight months and coordinated more than 800,000 containers overland, he said2.
DP World group chief executive Yuvraj Narayan gave the scale of the substitution to Bloomberg. Its truck networks now move more than 3,000 containers a day near Jebel Ali, against normal terminal volumes of about 40,000 containers a day, he said3. Replacing sea miles with road miles is "four or five times more costly in some instances", he said3.
Rates show what the detour costs
Xeneta data cited by Bloomberg showed spot rates for a 40-foot container from China to Khor Fakkan up 442% since the war started, as of 23 October3.
Carriers still add contingency charges on these origins. Maersk cut its Emergency Contingency Surcharge from Jebel Ali, Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and Sohar to West Africa by US$500 per container from 1 November7. The charge is now US$3,450 for a 20-foot dry container and US$4,650 for a 40-foot dry container7.
Congestion is the other cost. On 28 October, 74 dry bulk vessels were waiting at Fujairah and 50 at Sohar8. Together they made up 47% of the 265 vessels waiting across 29 regional ports. Regional waiting was 75% above a year earlier, according to Signal Group data published by Hellenic Shipping News8. The Journal of Commerce reported longer berthing delays at Fujairah and Khor Fakkan and strained feeder capacity after the Hormuz attacks9.
India's ports are taking the transshipment
Gujarat Pipavav Port raised its container growth outlook for FY27 to 8-10% from 4-5% after a surge in transhipment cargo linked to the conflict in West Asia4. Container volumes grew 18% in the September quarter, management expects the trend to continue for at least 9 to 12 months, and the port expects about 850,000 TEU in FY284.
Other carriers are building direct east coast links too. GT Lines and three partners will run the Khor Fakkan-China Express every ten days with five vessels, on a Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Khor Fakkan rotation10. CU Lines now calls Khor Fakkan and Duqm on its China-Gulf Express, replacing Sohar, every three weeks11.
On land, AD Ports Group's Noatum Logistics doubled its GCC trucking fleet to more than 850 units. It also runs a rail shuttle between Khalifa Port and Fujairah Terminals, a set-up it says proved effective during recent regional disruption12.
What to watch
Watch whether the added calls hold once the security picture changes, and whether congestion at Fujairah and Khor Fakkan eases as feeder capacity grows1, 9.
DP World expects freight rates to fall eventually. "We have seen this before," Al Hashimi said, pointing to the Red Sea crisis, piracy in 2012 and Covid2. Narayan is less confident that the network snaps back. He argued that another port or route can be found, but Jebel Ali cannot be re-created elsewhere quickly3.