Far East-Middle East Direct Service Relaunches on 17 October: The Sailing Is Back, but the Destination Port Is Congested First
The Gemini cooperation between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd is relaunching its direct Far East-Middle East service on 17 October, calling at Qingdao, Ningbo, Tanjung Pelepas, Khor Fakkan and Singapore. Maersk markets the product as FM1 and Hapag-Lloyd as AGX. With the US-Iran conflict still ongoing, Jebel Ali sits inside the Strait of Hormuz and carries too much risk exposure, so the service now calls at Khor Fakkan, outside the strait, with inland distribution across the UAE completed by road.
The return of direct sailings should be good news, but the destination port flashed red in the very first week. In its latest operational update, Maersk explicitly flagged vessel congestion, limited berth availability, high yard utilisation, road congestion and extended truck waiting times at Khor Fakkan, all of which are delaying cargo clearance and pickup. The assessment from logistics provider Kuehne+Nagel is blunter: the volumes shifted to ports outside the strait over recent months have turned Khor Fakkan and Fujairah into the main pressure points of the entire UAE corridor. As congestion at Jeddah eases, some flows are expected to redistribute towards alternative gateways such as Jeddah, Aqaba and Salalah, but pressure on Khor Fakkan and Fujairah is unlikely to ease materially in the short term.
The driving force is the sharp deterioration in security across the Strait of Hormuz. According to UKMTO, 15 attacks on commercial shipping were recorded between 6 and 14 October, eleven of them in the final four days. A Singapore-flagged containership struck by an unidentified projectile sank in the strait; all 21 crew members were rescued, while a second Singapore-flagged vessel sustained hull damage and reached a safe anchorage. Brent crude has climbed to around USD 106 per barrel, and bunker costs and war-risk premiums are rising in step, with strait transit risk now being priced into freight line by line.
The spot market has already priced in the risk. Freightos marketplace data from 14 October puts the median spot quote from Shanghai to Jebel Ali at about USD 8,312 per FEU, and Shanghai to Jeddah at about USD 11,623. More telling, some of the cheapest offers carry transit times of 51 to 78 days - low prices that reflect long Cape of Good Hope routings and infrequent sailings. With direct sailings restored, the nominal ocean leg shrinks considerably, but actual delivery time depends on whether the destination port can discharge and release cargo quickly.
For shippers moving cargo to the Middle East, the core judgement comes down to one sentence: the return of direct sailings does not mean transit times are back to normal. The shorter ocean leg is only the headline; what determines real delivery is port and inland efficiency. Current congestion at Khor Fakkan will absorb much of the time saved, and because the service now calls outside the strait, an extra inland leg sits between vessel arrival and final delivery. Who bears it, which route it takes and how long it lasts differ from carrier to carrier - and this is precisely the part most often missed in quotations.
Four practical recommendations. First, confirm the actual port of call and onward delivery arrangements before booking, and put the responsibility and cost boundary for the inland leg in writing on the booking confirmation; do not assume that arrival at port equals arrival at your warehouse. Second, calculate lead times in three segments - ocean transit, port operations and inland connectivity - and build in a buffer of at least one week when promising dates downstream. Third, review the war-risk terms and trading limits of your cargo insurance and confirm in writing, if necessary with your insurer, that the revised routing via Khor Fakkan and onward by road into the UAE interior remains covered. Fourth, when comparing quotations, break out base freight from bunker and emergency surcharges - with oil around USD 106, surcharges are more likely to rise than fall, and the cheapest all-in rate is not always the cheapest in reality.
The Middle East is one of A-Choice's core trade lanes. We will keep tracking congestion relief at Khor Fakkan, cargo redistribution towards alternative gateways such as Jeddah and Aqaba, and the actual schedule reliability of the relaunched Gemini service, and we will keep our clients updated as conditions change.
