Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port Jeddah is bracing for an increase in business over the next two weeks.
The five ships on the platform were less than normal traffic on a balmy Sunday afternoon, but with airspace largely closed in countries along the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, Saudi west coast ports offer a safer lifeline to and from the region.
A 700-mile gas pipeline about three hours’ drive north of Jeddah has been repurposed to export Saudi oil to tankers lined up at another Red Sea port, Yanbu. Saudi officials say these oil cargoes account for much of the one-third increase in Red Sea traffic in the weeks since the start of the war.
But for a region that imports about 85% of its food, securing the transportation of incoming goods is equally important.
The US and Israeli attacks on Iran, and Iran’s retaliatory attacks, have halted traffic to and from ports along the Persian Gulf, disrupting these vital import and export supply chains.
Transport traffic is diverted to the Red Sea
When the war began, more than 60 ships en route to Gulf ports were diverted, with some having to return to their home bases in China and India, according to Marine Traffic data shared with CNN. Some headed to ports along the Arabian and Red Seas on the Arabian Peninsula, while others chose regional ports further afield.
Sohar and Salalah ports in Oman, Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia have emerged as alternatives to the need to deliver cargo directly to the Arabian Peninsula.
Ronan Boudet, head of container intelligence at Kpler, which specializes in global trade analysis, wrote: “There is no industry standard for this crisis. Cargo arrival dates are now entirely dependent on which carrier’s strategy is tied in.”
As the war enters its fourth week, focus has shifted to finding solutions to fill the shelves of supermarkets and pharmacies across the region.
“This region is very import-driven, which means that for every container that comes into the region, every conceivable product is in that container,” said Charles van der Steene, regional managing director at shipping giant Maersk.
He said shipping companies are working with local governments to set priorities.
“Food and medicine are a priority…Whether it’s for the UAE, whether it’s for Saudi Arabia, whether it’s for Bahrain or Kuwait or any other country in the Gulf, these are the top priorities to ensure that our citizens receive what they need as part of their daily lives,” he explained.
Identifying suitable ports and land routes is a key element in ensuring that the entire supply chain is efficient and available once the container is off-loaded from the ship, Van der Steene said.
President Trump says Strait of Hormuz will ‘open soon’
President Donald Trump was asked by CNN’s Caitlan Collins about his expectations for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen and how a president who claims the United States has “killed” Iran’s nuclear program can claim there was an imminent threat to Iran.
As the only country in the Persian Gulf bordering neighboring Arab countries, Saudi Arabia has launched a Logistics Route Initiative to facilitate such shipments to these countries through relaxed customs regulations and a network of roads and trucks. Saudi officials said they recorded more than 94,000 truck operations at all border crossings between February 28 and March 18.
This network facilitates inland travel from various ports, but there is an increasing emphasis on Jeddah as the main entry point. Officials at Saudi Arabia’s largest port told CNN during a visit on Sunday that the increased demand would be reflected in a 50% jump in arrivals in two weeks.
However, there are ongoing security vulnerabilities. Iranian drones attacked fuel depots and oil facilities near these major ports, which were initially considered outside the danger zone. After Israel attacked processing facilities associated with Iran’s South Pars natural gas field last week, Iran responded by attacking Arab energy facilities, including the Samref refinery, which is part of Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port.
Confidence in the safety of the Red Sea route has been restored in recent months after Yemen’s Houthi rebels, proxies of Iran, ceased attacks on merchant ships and US naval vessels in the Red Sea and its southern entry point, the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi said in a March 5 speech that “our hand is on the trigger,” but his group has not yet launched a direct attack on shipping.
Still, the prospect of a Houthi attack weighs on some shipping companies, such as Maersk, which is now avoiding the Bab al-Mandab Strait by shipping to Oman’s Salalah in the Arabian Sea or entering the Red Sea only through the northern entrance, the Suez Canal.
“Of course, the main risk at this stage is that the actual conflict itself spreads over a wider area,” van der Steene said. He warned that while Jeddah “remains a safe option”, “we need to consider what the alternatives would be” if the situation changed.
For now, marine monitoring websites show the flow of tankers and cargo ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab and Suez Canal. It is unclear how this will change in the coming weeks.
