DP World grows truck fleet 40% to bypass Strait of Hormuz

DP World, the Dubai-based ports and logistics giant, is expanding its overland freight network with a 40% increase in its truck fleet and new land routes, betting that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz will not return to pre-conflict levels, Bloomberg reported on Monday.bloomberg

Chief Operating Officer for Freight Forwarding Europe Stephen Whittingham told Bloomberg that the company plans to add new land routes to diversify supply chains linking Europe, the US, and Asia to the Persian Gulf.news.bloomberglaw+1

Trucks and Bonded Routes Fill the Gap

Since March 2026, DP World has moved between 350,000 and 500,000 TEUs overland across the Gulf Cooperation Council using bonded routes running through Oman and connecting to Jeddah on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast. The company has added 700 trucks to its fleet, generating roughly 3,000 daily truck movements across the network.cryptobriefing+1

Shipping traffic through the Hormuz has remained well below pre-conflict levels, weighed down by security concerns and war-risk insurance premiums that have made voyages through the strait considerably more expensive.cryptobriefing

Fujairah Terminals Offer a Maritime Alternative

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, positioned outside the Strait of Hormuz entirely. The 50-year concession covers a container terminal at Al Rugaylat targeting annual capacity of 2.5 million TEUs and a facility at Dibba designed to handle 3.6 million tonnes of cargo per year.globalsources+1

Fujairah sits on the Gulf of Oman side of the UAE, meaning ships calling there would never need to transit the strait. Once complete, DP World's total UAE container capacity would grow from 19.4 million TEUs to nearly 22 million TEUs, with construction expected to take 24 to 30 months.cryptobriefing+1

A Broader Strategy

DP World CEO Yuvraj Narayan has indicated the company plans to invest approximately $3 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, with the Fujairah terminals representing a core piece of that spending. The terminals will connect to Jebel Ali, DP World's flagship facility inside the Persian Gulf, through an inland logistics network.cryptobriefing+1

The push fits into what UAE officials have called a "zero Hormuz dependency" strategy, combining ports, pipelines, and rail infrastructure to reduce reliance on a waterway that previously accounted for around 20% of global oil supplies transiting by sea. "I think we'll never get back to the" previous status quo, Whittingham told Bloomberg.news.bloomberglaw+1