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The Strait of Hormuz is roughly 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. Through that sliver of water passes a significant share of the world’s seaborne oil, and on any given day, thousands of containers ride the same route. DP World, the Dubai-based ports and logistics giant, has decided not to wait around to find out what happens if that corridor closes for good.
On July 22, 2026, DP World finalized an in-principle agreement with the Fujairah Ports Authority to build two new deep-water terminals on the UAE’s east coast, strategically positioned outside the Strait of Hormuz altogether. The deal was signed as a 50-year concession, with one terminal at Al Rugaylat targeting annual container capacity of 2.5 million TEUs, and a second facility at Dibba designed to handle 3.6 million tonnes of cargo per year.
A geography lesson with a $3 billion price tag
Fujairah sits on the Gulf of Oman side of the UAE, which means ships calling there never have to transit the strait at all. Shipping traffic through the Hormuz has remained well below pre-conflict levels, weighed down by security concerns and war-risk insurance premiums that make every voyage through the strait considerably more expensive. For a port operator whose flagship facility, Jebel Ali, sits firmly inside the Persian Gulf, that creates an obvious vulnerability.
DP World CEO Yuvraj Narayan has indicated the company plans to invest approximately $3 billion in capital expenditures for 2026. The Fujairah terminals represent a core piece of that spending, connecting to Jebel Ali through an inland logistics network built specifically to carry ultra-large container vessels’ cargo overland when the sea route is impractical.
The phased construction is expected to wrap up within 24 to 30 months. Once complete, DP World’s total global container capacity will grow from 19.4 million TEUs to nearly 22 million TEUs.
Trucks are doing a lot of heavy lifting right now
While the terminals are still being built, DP World has not been sitting still. Since March 2026, the company has moved between 350,000 and 500,000 TEUs overland across the Gulf Cooperation Council, using a network of bonded routes running through Oman and connecting to Jeddah on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
To make that work at scale, DP World added 700 trucks to its fleet, generating roughly 3,000 daily truck movements across the network.
The overland push fits into a broader UAE strategy that officials have been calling “zero Hormuz dependency,” a goal that combines ports, pipelines, and rail infrastructure to build alternative corridors for energy and cargo. The strait previously accounted for around 20% of global oil supplies transiting by sea.
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