Sharjah and Oman have launched a logistics corridor to move goods by sea and land more easily, as the Strait of Hormuz closure continues to affect trade.
The arrangement allows goods to cross borders more seamlessly, with Oman’s Sohar port on the east coast crucial, along with Duqm and Salalah.
Heavy goods vehicles are now used far more extensively in the UAE to collect everything from supermarket staples to industrial goods from Oman and Saudi Arabia, and send manufactured items out.
“The new corridor consolidates the integration between maritime and land transport by providing a seamless logistics extension that expands market access,” a statement from Sharjah Customs read.
“It does not replace existing maritime routes but rather enhances system flexibility and diversifies logistics options.”
The corridor operates through Sharjah’s land border crossings, primarily Khatmat Malaha border crossing in Kalba and Al Madam border crossing.
Operations officially started on May 14.
A key advantage is the ability to complete customs clearance procedures directly at Sharjah’s border crossings, particularly Khatmat Malaha and Al Madam, without the need for additional transfer stages. This significantly reduces processing time.
Meanwhile, Dubai’s government on Sunday released the first statistics from its ‘green corridor’ with Oman, which was set up after Iran began striking international shipping.
The number of customs declarations surged from 12,000 in March to nearly 100,000 in April, with the value of transported goods up from Dh1 billion ($270 million) to more than Dh8 billion.
Dubai Government Media Office said the route has “quickly emerged as a vital trade artery, redirecting global shipments arriving through Oman and transporting them overland to Dubai through the Hatta Border Crossing under streamlined and accelerated customs procedures”.
Last week, Adnoc said it would rapidly expand the West-East Pipeline, which carries oil from Habshan, one of the world’s largest oil and gas fields in the Abu Dhabi desert, to ships waiting in Fujairah on the east coast, therefore bypassing Hormuz.
By 2027, the pipeline will be able to carry three million barrels of oil per day, up from 1.5 million today. Before the Iran war, the UAE produced between 3.2 million and 3.6 million barrels of oil per day. It wants to hit 5 million barrels sometime next year.