Gulftainer adds 1k trucks and 100k sqm logistics park to Khorfakkan expansion

A fleet for the east coast: UAE ports and logistics operator Gulftainer has signed an agreement with United Al Saqer Heavy Equipment to acquire 1k trucks and develop a 100k sqm automotive logistics park in Al Dhaid, according to a press release. The first 450 trucks are expected before the end of November and the remaining 550 in 1Q 2027. Neither company disclosed the investment value or a completion date for the facilities.

Two figures will show whether the trucks pay off: Trucking alone offers thin margins, with the bigger commercial prospect lying in the storage and handling revenues generated across Gulftainer's inland logistics parks, Wolfgang Lehmacher, former head of supply chain and transport industries at the World Economic Forum, tells EnterpriseAM. “Two figures will show whether it works: the share of the fleet under contracts of several years, and how often trucks return loaded rather than empty. If both are high once the crisis eases, the investment stands,” he adds.

A workshop comes with the trucks: United Al Saqer will develop and operate what Gulftainer says will be the largest truck workshop on the UAE’s east coast, within the Khorfakkan Al Dhaid Free Economic Zone (Kafez), providing maintenance, repairs, fleet support, and driver facilities. The automotive park will handle vehicles arriving through east coast ports, with storage, handling, distribution, heavy-vehicle servicing, and spare-parts facilities.

A natural anchor user comes with the park: “United Al Saqer, which has 40 years in the UAE vehicle trade, is a partner in the park, so it starts with a natural anchor user. I expect it to serve new and commercial vehicles landed outside Hormuz for the UAE and the wider Gulf. Jebel Ali’s free zone and re-export trade are long established. The sign of ambition would be a second car maker or distributor signing up,” Lehmacher says.

IN CONTEXT- Gulftainer is pursuing a USD 2 bn expansion to double Khorfakkan’s container capacity to 10 mn TEUs, alongside another 2-3 mn TEUs of inland logistics capacity. Since the Hormuz disruption, the port has moved from a transshipment hub toward an alternative gateway for Gulf-bound cargo, and weekly throughput rose from around 8k TEUs to 65k after a new landside gate complex opened.

Most of Khorfakkan’s growth is diverted cargo, with some long-term commitments. Some shipping and industrial customers are already committing for longer, Lehmacher tells us. Emirates Global Aluminium has agreed to move volumes through the port for two years, and MSC has added Khorfakkan to a major Asia service. “Cargo will stay with one price covering the inland journey, one customs clearance, and reliable delivery,” he adds. “The real test comes when insurers ease their war-risk ratings for Hormuz: do the main services keep calling?”

The port’s limit is inland: Khorfakkan was designed to transfer containers between vessels, not to move them inland, which leaves its practical gateway capacity at around 3-3.5 mn TEUs, Drewry’s Eirik Hooper previously told EnterpriseAM. The new trucks will serve Gulftainer’s inland network, including the 150-hectare Al Dhaid multimodal hub, planned to handle 1.5 mn TEUs a year and eventually connect with Etihad Rail. Together with the Sajaa bonded dry port, 90 km from Khorfakkan, the network is meant to move containers off the terminal faster and reduce the port’s reliance on its own storage and handling space.

The figure to watch is how long a truck takes to get in and out: Owning trucks matters most when hauliers are scarce, as they have been at Khorfakkan this year, Lehmacher argues. Gulftainer’s dry port at Sajaa handled a record 150k TEU in a single month and has no rail link yet. “The fleet makes that flow more dependable. It does not make the yard, the gates or the mountain road any bigger.”