Gulf trade looks for alternative roads, and KSA is the bridge: A logistics corridor linking Saudi Arabia’s west-coast ports to inland transport and customs routes feeding Gulf markets has been launched, keeping supply chains moving while bypassing Hormuz.

The move turns Red Sea ports into a fallback gateway for Gulf trade. Cargo arriving via the Suez Canal can land at Jeddah Islamic Port, King Abdullah Port, or Yanbu Commercial Port before moving overland to Gulf markets. That means goods from Asia or Europe can reach the Gulf without passing through Hormuz.

Disruptions are forcing traders to look for alternatives: Shipping companies are already avoiding Hormuz as ins. costs and war risk escalate. Under normal conditions, around one-fifth of global seaborne oil and gas trade passes through the strait, along with a significant share of Gulf-bound goods.

Why this matters

The push for alternative routes reflects a broader change in supply chains. We are seeing a shift where customers are requiring a plan B shipping option or “backup offer” — a consideration often neglected by large global industries in the past, until recent crises exposed the fragility of single-route supply chains, Folk Maritime CEO Poul Hestbaek told us last year.

The stakes are significant: When shipping through Hormuz became unreliable, the Gulf’s entire trade model came under pressure. Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports and overland transport network offer one of the few existing pathways through which cargo can be rerouted at scale without relying on the eastern coast.

Some carriers are adapting, Neil Lowry, Athens correspondent at Lloyd’s List, said in an overview talk attended by EnterpriseAM. Lowry pointed to the AE19 service launched by Gemini carriers that sails around the Cape of Good Hope into the Mediterranean and then into Jeddah, where cargo can move onward to Gulf markets via land bridge and rail connections.

Port operators are already bracing for the shift: DP World — which operates the South Container Terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port — expects rising volumes at its Red Sea terminals as the closure of the strait diverts traffic away from Gulf ports, CEO Yuvraj Narayan said. Terminals such as Jeddah are likely to see higher traffic as cargo is rerouted, he said.

The advantage? Spare port capacity. Ports along the kingdom’s west coast have an annual capacity exceeding 18.6 mn TEUs, much of it not fully utilized.

REMEMBER- The Red Sea is getting a second chance: At least 25 supertankers have been reported heading toward Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu Commercial Port to keep crude flowing. The play hinges on the east-west pipeline, the kingdom’s emergency bypass around Hormuz. Crude flows through the pipeline are ramping up toward its full 7 mn bbl / d capacity within days.

This second chance could create “healthy” competition: Saudi investments in inland logistics zones and Red Sea gateways will narrow the perceived gap with established hubs in the UAE, Wolfgang Lehmacher, former head of supply chain and transport industries at the World Economic Forum, tells EnterpriseAM.

BUT- In a world of weaponized interdependence, there’s more value in a connected Middle Eastern platform of interoperable hubs — Jeddah, Yanbu, Dammam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Salalah, Aqaba, and others — rather than in a zero-sum race where everyone tries to become “the” hub, Lehmacher said. The advice would be to compete on performance but collaborate on standards, data, and interoperability, ensuring the region becomes more indispensable and resilient to global shippers and investors, he added.

What’s next?

Players could opt to design portfolios of corridors that give them options when geopolitics, markets, or climate turn against us, Lehmacher said. “By shifting part of the flow away from the Gulf and toward the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, these corridors do not make Hormuz irrelevant, but they do change the geometry of power in the region: market access, risk, and bargaining leverage will no longer be concentrated in a single narrow waterway,” he added.

For now, the real indicator will be cargo movement itself — whether cargo shifts in scale and shipping lines actually shift flows. Early signals suggest the market is already testing alternatives. If rerouting accelerates, the kingdom’s Red Sea ports could move from backup option to central gateway for GCC trade even after the conflict eases.

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