Good morning, ladies and gents. It’s a calm news morning on the logistics front, leaving us with a handful of trade and shipping updates from around the region. In Egypt, a fire broke out in the Ramses telecoms data center yesterday disrupting mobile service, internet connectivity, and banking services across the country. We’ll have more on this story in the news well below, but first, an update from Trump tariff land…
THE BIG LOGISTICS STORY- Brics in Trump’s crosshairs: US President Donald Trump has threatened an additional10% tariff on nations affiliated with the Brics bloc in response to what he said were the coalition’s “anti-American” policies. The threat comes after the bloc indirectly slammed the US protectionist trade policies, describing them as “inconsistent” with the World Trade Organization, in a statement that came out from the bloc’s Rio De Janeiro summit on Sunday. Meanwhile, Brazil — one of Brics’ top members — and Washington are set to resume tariff negotiations this week after discussions stalled last week over a Brazilian proposal to trim some of the US tariffs. Egypt, the UAE, and Iran are all members of the bloc.
This story grabbed a lot of attention in the press: Reuters | The Associated Press | Financial Times | The Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg | The Washington Post | CNBC | The New York Times
ALSO- US pushes baseline tariff deadline: Negotiators hoping to finalize a trade agreement with the US will now have an extra three weeks to hammer out their agreements after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the US’ universal baseline tariffs will be rolled out on 1 August — instead of the previous 9 July deadline.
What now? Countries that have already secured agreements with the US will still see the negotiated duties drop on 9 July, whereas other countries will be up against Liberation Day rates if they fail to reach an agreement by 1 August. Tariff letters are being delivered from Monday to Tuesday, while trade agreements will be announced till the deadline.
The run before the [tariff] cliff: The US has been reportedly working to finalize a number of bilateral trade agreements ahead of the initial 9 July tariff deadline, but talks for some 10-12 agreements — out of 18 currently under negotiation — could linger until Labor Day in September before they are finalized, Bessent noted late last month.
This story got moderate ink in the int’l press: Bloomberg | The Guardian | France 24 | Reuters | CNBC News
WATCH THIS SPACE-
#1- Telecom meltdown in Egypt: A fire at the Ramses telecoms data center disrupted mobile service, internet connectivity, and banking services across Egypt yesterday causing “limited” flight delays, according to a Cabinet statement. Operations have since returned to normal at Cairo International Airport, with all passenger terminals operating normally and all flights that had been affected by the outage taking off, the ministry said this morning.
We still don’t know the full impact on other transportation and logistics services. Some reports suggested that the ticketing system in rail and subway ticketing systems were reportedly impacted, El Watan reports, but no details have emerged on freight and shipping disruptions.
Two floors of the data center affected by the fire housed technical equipment connecting many Telecom Egypt services, National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) official Mohamed Ibrahim said in a televised appearance on Amr Adib’s El Hekaya last night (watch, runtime: 6:35). “There are other telecoms data centers of similar size and importance capable of performing the one in Ramses’ role, and we’ve already started shifting all traffic and lines to alternative centers to gradually restore services,” he added.
Where things stand: Broadband services have been moved entirely to El Rawda, NTRA said. The most recent update from Netblocks, which tracks global internet connectivity, suggests that connectivity levels across the country are at “44% of ordinary levels,” falling from an earlier report that connectivity was at 62% of ordinary levels.
The fire received coverage in Reuters, Bloomberg, and The Associated Press.
#2- Twenty-two people onboard a commercial vessel have been rescued by an AD Ports-operated ship following a distress call, after it came under attack by the Houthis in the Red Sea, UAE’s state news agency Wam reports. The vessel — Magic Seas — was attacked by gunfire, rockets, and explosive-laden remote-controlled boats, and the Houthis claimed it had sunk following the attack, Reuters reports.
The incident marks the return of Houthi attacks on ships in the maritime passageway after a period of calm, and it comes just hours after the Israeli military launched strikes on three Yemeni ports — Hodeidah, Ras Isa, and Salif ports — in retaliation to missiles fired at Israel from Yemen. Israel also attacked the Galaxy Leader ship in Ras Isa port and Ras Qantib power plant.
We were on our toes: Israel threatened the Iran-backed group last month with a naval and air blockade if attacks were to continue — after it pushed for an evacuation of the Houthi-controlled ports of Ras Isa, Hodeidah, and Salif.
#3- Egypt is looking to increase its imports of Israeli gas by 200 mcf/d to meet rising summer demand, a government source told EnterpriseAM. Though an agreement is in place to boost supplies to both Egypt and Jordan, flows remain at their usual seasonal level of 800–850 mcf/d due to high domestic consumption in Israel. Talks are expected to resume soon to activate the agreed increase, especially as Egypt works to strengthen its regasification infrastructure.
ICYMI- Egypt has secured gas supplies to all sectors through four floating storage and regasification units this summer with a combined capacity of 2.7 bcf/d, the Oil Ministry confirmed earlier this week. A fifth unit — to be shared with Jordan through the Arab Gas Pipeline — is also currently en route to Aqaba Port in Jordan.
#4- Oman breaks ground on OMR 47 mn Izki-Nizwa road project: Oman’s Transport, Communications, and Information Technology Ministry (MTCIT) has begun construction work on the 32 km-long Izki-Nizwa dual carriageway project, Oman Observer reports. The project will start from the Southern Qarout roundabout in the Wilayat of Izki and end in the Wilayat of Nizwa’s Farq area. The construction will also include 3 km of service roads.
Background: The MTCIT awarded the project’s construction contract to Galfar Engineering and Construction back in October. The project is set to see the addition of a 1.2 km dualized road to connect the project to Sanaw Bridge on Thuwayni, a vehicle underpass, and another 0.9 km road leading to Jabal Al Akhdar. It will also include installing 10 roundabouts and vehicle underpasses.
MARKET WATCH-
#1- Oil prices went down this morning amid market uncertainty over the impact of the US’s latest tariff plans and Opec+’s production hike for August, Reuters reports. Brent crude futures dropped USD 0.22 to USD 69.36 a barrel by 03.30 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures dipped by USD 0.27 to trade at USD 67.66 a barrel. The morning rate drop came after prices rallied by about 2% in an earlier session.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is predicting that eight Opec+ members will increase oil production quotas by 550k bbl / d in September, completing the reversal of the 2.2 mn bbl / d voluntary cuts, Reuters reports, citing a note from the bank. The move would bring the group’s production to some 33 mn bbl / d by September.
The bank kept its Brent crude forecast unchanged at USD 59 / bbl for 4Q this year and USD 56 / bbl for next year. The forecast reflects a balancing act between lower-than-expected supply from producers like Russia and shrinking spare capacity — both supportive of prices — against downside pressures from a potential rollback of the 1.65 mn bbl / d Opec+ post-pandemic cuts and a 30% probability of a US recession.
Goldman also flagged upside risks to demand, projecting global oil consumption to increase by 600k bbl / d this year and by 1 mn bbl / d next year. Key drivers include strong demand from China, sustained global economic momentum, and further depreciation of the greenback.
REMEMBER- Opec+ agreed to raise production by 548k bbl / d in August, accelerating its plan to return supply to the market and exceeding analyst expectations
DATA POINT-
Oman’s Shinas Port in North Al Batinah handled roughly 361k tons of goods in 1H 2025, the Oman News Agency reports, citing the port’s Executive Director Khatir Al Ma’amari. The port handled around 354k tons of imports and 7k tons of exports, with 1.2k tons of general cargo being imported and around 4k of general cargo exported.
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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-
Intermodal Africa will kick off on Tuesday, 22 July and run till Thursday, 24 July in Beira, Mozambique. The forum will host over 300 senior government officials, industry leaders, academics, senior executives, and harbor masters in the ports, shipping, and logistics sector. Attendees and speakers will be coming from countries across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
Transport Middle East 2025 will kick off on Monday, 1 September and will run till Wednesday, 3 September in Salalah, Oman. The conference will host 35 international speakers and over 50 exhibitors from the maritime sector to discuss global transportation and logistics.
The Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference will take place on 3-4 September at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jeddah. The event is set to gather over 60 speakers and more than 3k participants to discuss maritime decarbonization, digital transformation, regulatory frameworks, capacity building, and sustainable practices.
Check out our full calendar at the bottom of this email for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events and news triggers.




