The ongoing shipping crisis around the Strait of Hormuz is now triggering something far bigger than temporary disruption. Across the Middle East and Asia, governments, ports and major industrial groups are moving quickly to redesign trade routes and reduce dependence on one of the world’s most sensitive maritime chokepoints.
According to the International Energy Agency, the scale of disruption caused by the conflict has already surpassed the oil shocks of the 1970s, pushing both public and private players to accelerate long discussed infrastructure projects that until recently had remained on the drawing board.
One of the latest developments came this week as AD Ports Group and Abu Dhabi petrochemical giant Borouge signed a partnership agreement focused on creating an alternative export hub on the UAE’s east coast. The project would rely on Fujairah Terminals and other eastern port facilities to support international shipments outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Borouge, already the largest exporter using AD Ports’ infrastructure, said the new agreement goes beyond traditional cooperation.Both companies will now explore dedicated polyolefins infrastructure on the east coast while also working directly with shipping lines to establish new maritime routes through Fujairah.
“We are building a more flexible and diversified network that enhances reliability, ensures continuity of supply, and reinforces our position as a trusted global supplier,” said Borouge CEO Hazeem Sultan Al Suwaidi.
Fujairah has rapidly become one of the Gulf’s most strategic logistics locations because it sits outside the Strait of Hormuz on the Gulf of Oman. However, the port has not escaped the effects of the conflict entirely, with drone attacks already disrupting oil-loading operations since the war began in late February.
Despite those risks, the UAE is doubling down on its east coast strategy. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed recently confirmed the acceleration of a new West-East Pipeline project that would significantly expand export capacity through Fujairah by 2027.
The UAE already operates the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline linking Habshan to Fujairah, with an estimated capacity of between 1.5 and 1.8 million barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia has also been relying heavily on its East-West pipeline system stretching from Abqaiq to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The 1,200 km pipeline currently provides around 4.5 million barrels per day of export capacity and has been described by Aramco CEO Amin Nasser as a “critical lifeline.”
Still, even together, the UAE and Saudi pipeline systems remain far below the nearly 20 million barrels of oil that used to transit through Hormuz every day before the conflict escalated.
Elsewhere in the region, Iraq is attempting to revive the long-idled Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline linking Iraqi oilfields to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Baghdad plans to restart flows at around 170,000 barrels per day before eventually increasing capacity to 250,000 barrels.
At the same time, Iraq is revisiting older pipeline proposals connecting the country to Oman’s port of Duqm, Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba and potentially Egypt — projects that were previously stalled by political instability, financing issues and regional tensions.
Iran itself theoretically possesses an alternative export route through the Goreh-Jask pipeline, which bypasses Hormuz entirely. However, despite a test shipment from Jask in late 2024, the route remains largely inactive and is still not considered a fully operational crude export solution by the IEA.
Some proposals now being discussed are even more ambitious. Among them is the idea of building a canal through the Hajar Mountains toward Fujairah effectively creating a Gulf equivalent of the Suez or Panama Canal. Analysts, however, warn that the engineering complexity and cost of such a project could run into hundreds of billions of dollars.
The shift is also reshaping logistics far beyond the Gulf region.
China, which depended heavily on Hormuz-linked energy imports, has intensified investment into the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, better known as the Middle Corridor. The route connects China to Europe through Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea, bypassing traditional maritime chokepoints.
Trade activity along the corridor has expanded rapidly. Road transport now accounts for more than half of China’s trade with Central Asia, compared with less than 20% only a few years ago. Meanwhile, trade between China and Kazakhstan reached a record $48.7 billion in 2025.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway one of the key arteries of the Middle Corridor — has also undergone major upgrades, with annual capacity increasing from one million to five million tonnes following modernization works completed in early 2024. Long-term targets aim to eventually push capacity toward 50 million tonnes by the mid-2030s.
Industry analysts increasingly view these developments not as short-term contingency measures, but as the beginning of a deeper structural transformation in global trade flows.
What is emerging is a new logistics geography built around multiple corridors and export nodes linking the Indian Ocean, the Gulf, Central Asia and the Mediterranean reducing dependence on the Persian Gulf’s historically dominant, but increasingly vulnerable, shipping infrastructure.
