Good morning, friends, it’s the last issue of 2025 and we have great news for Egypt.

A welcome policy shift leads our news well this morning. Egypt’s Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk signed off on sweeping amendments to the executive regulations of the Customs Law earlier this week. We break down whether the new regulations will actually cut the red tape — or just give clearing agents a new set of forms to fill out

ALSO– Don’t miss our talk with container industry analyst Simon Heaney about the wider global impact of a return to the Red Sea..

AND– Our 2025 year in review is here. We take a deep dive into how the region’s aviation industry fared this year on the back of capacity crunches and aggressive expansion.

** A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE – EnterpriseAM Logistics will be off tomorrow for New Year’s Day. We’ll be back in your inboxes at the usual time on Monday, 5 January 2026.

Watch this space-

DRY PORTS — Could a new Libyan dry port be the anchor of an Egyptian industrial zone? Cairo and Tripoli are in talks to turn the newly-established Al Jawf Dry Port southwest Libya into the cornerstone of a joint freezone — one designed to unlock West African markets for Egyptian exporters, a government source tells EnterpriseAM.

Why does it matter? It’s a play for industrial dominance. The move isn’t just about transporting goods, but establishing a manufacturing foothold to rival global players. The proposed freezone is Egypt’s strategic countermove to competitors like China, which has already established a massive ceramics factory in Libya’s Misrata to export to Europe, Mohamed El Beheiry, head of the Arab Cooperation Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, tells EnterpriseAM.

Background: Talks on the project launched in May 2024 with the aim of creating a launchpad for Egyptian exports into Libya, as well as wider intra-Africa trade, targeting landlocked Chad and Niger. It’s not clear from the Libyan Transport Ministry’s announcement whether Egypt will play a role in operating the port.

Not the first Egypt-backed project in the Libya-Niger-Chad corridor: The Egyptian government is planning to invest EGP 6 bn (c. USD 124 mn) for the first phase of a new road project connecting Egypt to Libya and Chad. The planned dry port will be located in proximity to this new East Oweinat-Kufra Road, which will stretch 1.7k km across the three countries.

AVIATION –– China’s private carriers are doubling down on Airbus: Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines are set to buy 55 A320neo-family jets –– 25 for Juneyao and 30 for Spring –– in combined contracts worth around USD 8.2 bn.

The order cements Airbus’ advantage in China — which is being won on the factory floor rather than the negotiating table. The French planemaker’s second final assembly line in Tianjin gives Airbus a localized capacity and delivery certainty as it works toward assembling 75 A320-family jets per month by 2027. The site plugs China directly into Airbus’s global production system of 10 final assembly lines across Europe, the US, and China.

Disruption watch-

YEMEN — A Saudi-led coalition hit Yemen’s Mukalla port with a limited airstrike, targeting what Riyadh described as weapons and heavy-vehicle shipments aboard two vessels arriving from Fujairah. The first has been identified as the St. Kitts and Nevis-flagged Greenland, a RoRo vessel. “The ships’ crew had disabled tracking devices aboard the vessels, and unloaded a large amount of weapons and combat vehicles in support of the Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) forces,” a statement published by state news agency SPA said. Saudi Arabia made the move to combat the STC’s military advances on its southern border with Yemen, which it deemed a “threat to the national security of the Kingdom.”

UAE to pull its remaining troops in Yemen: Presidential council head of the Aden-based central government Rashad Al Alimi accused the UAE of “pressuring” the STC to “undermine and rebel against the authority of the state.” Al Alimi also announced that Yemen is canceling its defense pact with the UAE. The UAE Foreign Ministry issued a statement refuting claims of contributing to tensions in the country, asserting the targeted vessel didn’t contain any weapons and the vehicles were destined for Emirati forces in Yemen. The statement stressed support for Saudi Arabia’s “sovereignty and national security” and noted that the Aden-based government had requested its presence in the country.

A final withdrawal: A separate Defense Ministry statement reported by Wam said the UAE is pulling its final counter-terrorism teams from Yemen after withdrawing its main military presence in 2019.

Background: The STC — which the UAE has in the past backed — seized power across southern Yemen earlier this month in a major move analysts were concerned could potentially split the country into two states for the first time in decades. A UAE official told Reuters at the time that the UAE’s position on Yemen “is in line with Saudi Arabia in supporting a political process” that is based on UN resolutions.

The UAE no longer has a footprint in Yemeni ports: Dubai’s DP World sold its stake in the company managing Aden Port’s container terminal — the Yemen Gulf of Aden Port Corporation –— back in 2012. This ended a strained relationship between the leading port operator and Yemen’s post-revolutionary government over the port’s management.

Market watch-

Oil prices slightly ticked up this morning — but Brent and WTI closed the year with losses of around 18% to 19%, Reuters reports. Brent crude futures inched by USD 0.11 to trade at USD 61.44 / bbl as of 04:51 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose by USD 0.11 to USD 58.06 / bbl.

Data point-

22% — this was the y-o-y growth rate for container volumes at the Aqaba Container Terminal since the start of the year, bringing throughput to 1 mn TEUs. The rise was supported by 602 vessel calls, up from 494 a year earlier.

***YOU’RE READING EnterpriseAM Logistics, the essential MENA publication for senior execs who care about the industry that connects producers and retailers to global markets. We’re out Monday through Thursday by 9:15am in Cairo and Riyadh and 11:15am in the UAE.

EnterpriseAM Logistics is available without charge thanks to the generous support of our friends at Hassan Allam Utilities, Transmar, and AK-Ships.

Were you forwarded this email? Tap or click here to get your own copy of Enterprise Logistics.

Want to send us a story idea, request coverage, ask for a correction, or otherwise get in touch? Reach out to us on logistics@enterprisemea.com.

DID YOU KNOW that we also cover Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE ***

Tags: