Khor Fakkan and Fujairah delays: what to recheck on your UAE files

Take a container sold as "Jebel Ali via Khor Fakkan" a few weeks ago. If the date your customer is holding assumed a normal terminal transfer, it is probably wrong by more than the vessel delay they have already heard about.

Kuehne+Nagel reported on 30 October that transfers from Khor Fakkan and Fujairah to Jebel Ali, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, previously about five days, now take about 12 to 15. The same report says vessels at Khor Fakkan arrived an average of 7.4 days behind schedule over the past 30 days. Add the two and a container on that routing could reach Jebel Ali 14 to 17 days later than its original plan. That is arithmetic on averages rather than a forecast, but it shows why a single revised ETA is no longer enough for the file or for the customer.

This article is for operations and sales leads at forwarders moving cargo into the UAE and the Upper Gulf. It covers what to recheck on files already moving and on quotations going out now. Conditions are changing weekly, so treat the figures as dated snapshots. Maersk is cited often below because its notices are public and detailed; other carriers' terms will differ, so check each file against its own carrier.

#What the gateways look like now

Cargo has moved to ports outside the Strait of Hormuz because of the disruption there. In mid-October, Kuehne+Nagel described container movements through the Strait as sporadic and mainly run by regional feeder operators. The ports receiving the diverted volume are carrying the strain. Logfret, citing the consultancy Linerlytica, reports regional congestion at record levels, concentrated at those gateways rather than spread evenly across the region.

Carriers are responding by limiting what they accept. Kuehne+Nagel says some are reducing allocations for Khor Fakkan, Fujairah and Sharjah, though it sees no widespread port omissions yet, and it expects conditions to worsen in the coming weeks. On 30 October Maersk restricted booking acceptance for Khor Fakkan, Fujairah and selected Upper Gulf destinations, taking new bookings according to available capacity. Its notice contains a line worth passing to your sales team: "A revised booking should not be treated as automatically transferred to a later sailing."

So when a booking has been revised, confirm the new sailing with the carrier and record it on the file. Don't assume the carrier has rolled the cargo forward.

#Give each file three dates, with an owner for each

A single ETA hides three separate waits, and each one depends on different parties.

1. Vessel arrival and discharge at the gateway. This depends on the carrier and on berth availability. It is the date you are most likely to have already.
2. The transfer to the final port or depot. This depends on the terminal, the carrier or haulier, and the bonded arrangements. It is the date most likely to be out of date.
3. Clearance and delivery. This depends on your customs broker, the haulier and the consignee's receiving hours. Maersk's operational update of 26 October cites road congestion and extended truck waiting times at Khor Fakkan as a cause of delayed clearance.

Where a date is unknown, say so. Maersk's 30 October notice says it will state when a revised onward movement or delivery date can't yet be confirmed. Passing that on as "transfer date not confirmed by the line" gives your customer something they can plan around. An estimate you invented to fill the field will have to be withdrawn later, usually after the customer has promised it to someone else.

#Check where the container will actually be

The place on the file may no longer be where the container is, or where it will be collected.

Maersk's 26 October update says the Khor Fakkan terminal is moving containers to the inland depot at Sajaa, which may affect collection arrangements. It also says the final port for selected shipments booked to Khor Fakkan will change to Jebel Ali, by discharge at Fujairah and bonded road transport, or by direct discharge where a feeder can transit the Strait. At Fujairah, the terminal has begun shifting some laden Jebel Ali containers to the Al Hayl off-dock yard.

Each of these moves changes the work on your side:

• The truck order. A haulier sent to the wrong location loses a turn in a market where trucks are already scarce. Forwarders told The Loadstar in mid-October that trucking capacity was going to whoever paid most rather than to the most urgent shipments.
• The customs route. A new location can change where and how the consignee is able to clear. For dangerous goods accepted via Khor Fakkan, Maersk says all cargo moves via Sajaa: customers registered in Khor Fakkan or Sharjah can clear there, paying the applicable charges directly, while those who aren't registered and need delivery to Jebel Ali or Abu Dhabi can use a double-bonded move billed at haulage rates. For any cargo that changes location, confirm the consignee's position and the procedure with your broker before the container arrives.
• Restricted cargo. Kuehne+Nagel reports continuing restrictions on discharging foreign cargo, dangerous goods and special equipment. If you have any of these on the water, confirm the routing again rather than relying on the original acceptance.
• Advance filing. If the vessel or last load port changes on a shipment still to load, ask your filing provider whether the UAE's pre-load cargo information needs amending. Our Arabic article on MPCI filing explains how that process works.

#Work out who pays while the container waits

Longer waits mean more days on the clock, and the charges often reach the forwarder before anyone has decided who bears them.

Start with free time, and read the current terms rather than assuming a relief exists. Maersk's advisory of 5 November sets out its temporary line detention measures, and they depend heavily on port and dates:

• For containers discharged since 26 March, Salalah and Jeddah carry standard or contracted free time, plus an optional paid extension: 12 days at USD 360 per container at Salalah, and 8 days at Jeddah at USD 100 for local moves or USD 240 for cross-border moves.
• That package is bought offline and only once per container. Free time can be extended only until the current last free day expires, so someone has to decide before that date passes.
• An empty returned in another country falls under that location's local detention and demurrage tariff.
• Its import scenarios name Salalah, Jebel Ali and Jeddah. They don't name Khor Fakkan or Fujairah, so ask the line directly about containers on those routings.

Storage needs a separate check. Maersk's 26 October update applies USD 25 per TEU per day, from the day of discharge, to cargo remaining under transshipment at Jebel Ali, payable by the freight payer, with reefer plug-in charged at actuals. Where cargo is cleared as import at Jebel Ali, including after a change of destination, the terminal bills the customer directly under its own tariff.

Then look at your own contract with the customer. Suppose you sold a door delivery at a fixed price, and the file now picks up a bonded move, storage and a free-time package. If your quotation didn't exclude those charges or allow you to pass them on, the cost may stay with you. Whether it does depends on your terms and on who is named as freight payer on the booking, so check each file instead of applying one rule to all of them. Agree the charge with the customer before it appears on an invoice, while they can still choose a different option, such as collecting sooner.

#Change what quotations promise

Quotations issued now need to state what they assume, because the routing and the surcharges may both change before the cargo loads.

Two recent Maersk notices show why. Its 4 November announcement revises the peak season surcharge from Far East Asia to the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Dammam to USD 1,000 per 20-foot and USD 2,000 per 40- or 45-foot container, effective 16 November for most origins, 19 November for Vietnam and 22 November for South Korea. For non-spot bookings outside FMC trades, the price calculation date is the scheduled departure of the first water leg at booking confirmation. A quote valid across those dates therefore needs either the new level or a clear condition. The 26 October update adds that Jebel Ali contract rates via Khor Fakkan are being updated, so the rate shown at booking may change before the price calculation date.

For cargo into these gateways, four things belong on the quotation:

• The routing assumed: the gateway, any transfer, and the final place of delivery, with a note that the carrier may change them.
• Transit time as an estimate, with the transfer stated separately from the ocean leg.
• Validity tied to the carrier's pricing date, and the surcharges included at the level you have seen.
• What is excluded: storage, detention, free-time packages, and the cost of a change of destination.

#Compare alternatives door to door

Kuehne+Nagel recommends spreading cargo across carriers and gateways, and names Salalah and Duqm as options with trucking capacity available. It also sells landbridge services, so check availability with your own suppliers. Maersk's 26 October update showed landside bookings paused from Salalah and Sohar to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, which shows that one provider's option may not be open on another's network.

A shorter vessel wait doesn't settle the comparison. Line up the routes by the date the cargo reaches the door, counting the border crossing, the customs regime in transit, cross-border free time, and where the empty has to go back. In mid-October, Kuehne+Nagel also warned of extended lead times on UAE–Saudi merchant haulage through Jeddah and King Abdullah Port, so a gateway with a quiet berth can still be the slower route.

#Where to start this week

Pull every open file with Khor Fakkan, Fujairah, Sajaa or Sharjah in its routing, then sort it by what a further delay would cost you: fixed-price door deliveries, reefers, restricted cargo, and containers nearest their last free day. Those are the files to check first, because on those a missed decision turns into a charge or a broken commitment rather than a late update.

The review is quick if gateway and final delivery can be filtered on your shipment list, and slow if they sit in free text or individual spreadsheets. On our shipment operations page we show how we handle that list, with filters on any column and a conversation kept on each shipment.