TODAY: Houthi strikes shut Riyadh's main airport and reach Dammam's

Good morning, ladies and gents. We have a somber start to the week: two Saudi airports were hit again yesterday. The Houthis have claimed four attacks on Saudi airports and Aramco facilities in 24 hours. Saudi authorities confirmed the strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid and Dammam’s King Fahd airports. King Khalid is shut after Saturday’s missile strike killed 13 people.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s first North Field East LNG train is ready to run next month, a dozen empty carriers are waiting near Qatar to load, and Aramco is in talks to make loading outside Hormuz a standard part of its 2027 crude contracts.

Also in today’s issue: Sharjah is pitching Khorfakkan to Indian investors as a way around Hormuz, and Agility Global has raised EUR 500 mn from international lenders.

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Sharjah wants India’s next Gulf base

With Hormuz routes crippled and Jebel Ali bottlenecks mounting, Sharjah is playing its geopolitical trump card. The emirate is leveraging a USD 2 bn expansion at Khorfakkan Commercial Terminal to target USD 3 bn in Indian FDI across 2026 and 2027, Economic Times reports. It is the UAE's only fully commercial deep-water port sitting safely outside the Strait of the Gulf of Oman.

The pitch is regional: Companies can use Sharjah as a base to reach Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and wider Gulf markets, while staying connected to east-west maritime routes. The Sharjah FDI Office expects about USD 1.5 bn this year and another USD 1.5 bn next year — a roughly 15% surge from the previous year. Manufacturers and logistics majors are rapidly securing industrial acreage around Khorfakkan to establish export hubs serving Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq without braving maritime chokepoints.

Khorfakkan opens up: The emirate is seeing rising enquiries from manufacturing, logistics, and transportation companies, and strong demand for industrial land near the port, said Mohamed Juma Al Musharrkh, CEO of Invest in Sharjah.

IN CONTEXT- Port operator Gulftainer is actively scaling Khorfakkan’s container capacity from 3.5 mn to 5 mn TEUs, eyeing a long-term 10 mn TEU target.

Seasonal slowdown

The Egyptian government has cut its planned October LNG purchases by 40% to 12 cargoes, down from 20, as cooler weather eases power demand, Asharq Business reports, citing an unnamed government official. Volumes could still change depending on domestic demand and global prices, the official added.

Each cargo still costs close to USD 100 mn: With LNG at around USD 28 per mmBtu, shipping, ins., and financing come on top of that, the official said. That means the import bill won’t necessarily fall in step with volumes. The government has earmarked USD 10.7 bn for natural gas imports this fiscal year.

We’ve seen this pattern before: Last October, the government cut its planned October LNG arrivals to six cargoes from 19 as domestic consumption eased. The seasonal slowdown had already left tankers queuing to unload in late September. But the relief proved temporary, and by November we were back on the market, seeking additional cargoes to fill the supply gap.

The gas crunch gave Egypt every reason to speed up its energy transition, and the question now is who builds it and who pays for it.

Power Trip, our four-part signature series, turns this week to the transition and the private developers now building much of Egypt’s new power.

Issue II looks at how the deals behind these projects work, who is lending to them, and why the country is building a nuclear plant at El Dabaa alongside its solar and wind farms. We also look at whether the regional crisis has finally pushed industry toward renewables, and at the factories Egypt is counting on to build its own panels, batteries, and turbines.

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Market watch

Oil prices fell on expectations of higher Russian supply after a reported halt in attacks on energy facilities, Reuters reports. Brent crude futures slipped USD 1.54 to USD 103.18 / bbl by 01.54 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) declined USD 1.54 to USD 90.31 / bbl.

The Baltic Index extends its slide: The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk index — which tracks rates for the capesize, panamax, and supramax vessel segments — fell 2.2% to 3,002 points on Friday. The capesize index dropped 4% to 4,638 points, while the panamax edged up 0.1% to 2,366 points. The smaller supramax gained 0.3% to 1,795 points.

The Drewry World Container Index fell 2% to USD 4,351 per 40-ft container last week, according to the latest index readings. Transpacific rates slipped, with Shanghai-Los Angeles down 3% and Shanghai-New York down 2%, while Shanghai-Rotterdam fell 2% and Shanghai-Genoa held flat. China’s Golden Week closures are weighing on cargo flows, and rising Suez Canal transits are adding effective capacity to Asia-Europe routes. Drewry expects volatility to continue as demand, capacity, and geopolitical risks move rates.

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