Jebel Ali falls to 32nd after Hormuz cuts Gulf box traffic

FTZ News: Alphaliner’s first-half container ranking has Jebel Ali in 32nd place. It had been 10th.

Throughput from January through June was 3.14 million TEU, against 7.77 million in the same stretch of 2025, a decline of almost 60%. Second-quarter volume was 374,000 TEU, more than 90% below a year earlier. First-quarter volume was already down 23% . The numbers circulated in early September and turned up again this week in port-industry write-ups that cited the same table.

Alphaliner tied the drop to geopolitical disruption in the Middle East and to restrictions on ships using the Strait of Hormuz. Jebel Ali is inside the Persian Gulf. Most vessels that call there still have to pass the strait. Those accounts said traffic through Hormuz nearly stopped from March and came back only unevenly in June. Carriers changed some Gulf services. Transshipment moved.

Colombo handled 4.44 million TEU in the half, up 11.9% and rose from 26th to 20th. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority said transshipment accounted for almost 85% of its container business. Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also called Nhava Sheva, went from 28th to 21st.

Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi lost ground. Alphaliner put the fall in volume at least at 50% and said the port left the global top 50 after finishing 32nd a year earlier. AD Ports had not published a matching official box total in the same pieces. The estimate was drawn from the group’s wider results.

September notes on vessel traffic said the Dubai terminals were still open. DP World was quoted saying there was no physical damage and that the problem was fewer ship calls. Maersk was described as landing some cargo at Fujairah and moving it in bond to Jebel Ali.

DP World said that from March it had shifted 500,000 TEU by road and rail across the GCC on a network that can take about 3,000 truck movements a day. It opened bonded routes between Jebel Ali and Fujairah and Khor Fakkan on the Gulf of Oman, added 700 trucks and raised inland container capacity.

In July the company signed a 50-year concession for two terminals on the UAE east coast. Al Rugaylat in Fujairah is planned for 2.5 million TEU a year, plus general cargo and vehicles. Dibba is the second site. Ships using those berths would not have to enter Hormuz. A second crude pipeline to Fujairah has been described as a way to raise export capacity there to 3.6 million barrels a day.

Shanghai stayed first with 28.74 million TEU, up 6.2%. Ningbo-Zhoushan took second at 22.9 million, up 8.8%, ahead of Singapore at 22.74 million. Chinese ports occupied six of the top 10 spots. Port Klang entered 10th after Jebel Ali left that group. Los Angeles and Long Beach together were ninth, just under 10 million TEU. Alphaliner said some of that cargo had been pulled forward before U.S. tariff changes. Throughput at the leading ports was estimated up 5.2% for the half.

The Jafza free zone sits next to the docks and has long been counted with them in Dubai’s trade story. Alphaliner’s list measures containers over the quay, not licenses in the zone./.


photo: www.cbnme.com