Red Sea ports, land railways shine as Hormuz closure becomes the new reality

Shippers are testing alternatives that prioritize reliability as Hormuz becomes a high-risk passage.

Port of Neom is emerging as one of the main Red Sea relay points — as shippers test a Europe-Egypt-Gulf workaround. The route combines trucking and ferry links (land and sea) to move time-sensitive cargo into GCC markets, and is already being used by European exporters targeting the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, and Oman.

A hybrid bridge: The corridor builds on a RoPax link launched by Pan Marine between Egypt’s Safaga and Neom — which creates a relay system connecting Mediterranean inflows with Gulf-bound demand without routing everything through a single maritime lane.

MEANWHILE- Saudi Arabia and Jordan will activate a joint committee to study a rail link that runs through Syria, calling for route option studies and technical alignments. The line would cover Jaber (Jordan-Syria) and Al Omari (Jordan-Saudi), plugging Jordan into a north-south freight spine.

BACKGROUND- The kingdom already has 5.5k km of rail reaching the Jordanian border, Transport and Logistics Minister Saleh bin Nasser Al Jasser said, making this an extension play. The rail push also follows a 1.7k km Saudi freight corridor already linking King Abdulaziz Port, King Fahd Industrial Port, and Jubail Commercial Port to Al Haditha Port on the border with Jordan — already building on the southern leg.

Why this matters: Saudi is stacking routing alternatives in multiple directions as risk reshapes trade flows. “In an interconnected world, resilience is not a luxury; it is the entry ticket to lasting growth,” Wolfgang Lehmacher, former head of supply chain and transport industries at the World Economic Forum previously told EnterpriseAM.