Khor Fakkan vessels wait 7.25 days as UAE congestion deepens

Vessels calling at Khor Fakkan are waiting an average of 7.25 days for a berth, as congestion across the United Arab Emirates intensifies and spreads from the quay deep into inland supply chains. Kuehne+Nagel, reporting the situation as of 30 October, says pressure is no longer confined to vessel operations — cargo dwell and terminal transfer times are climbing across the whole UAE network.

The numbers at Khor Fakkan are stark. Over the past 30 days, vessels arrived an average of 7.4 days behind schedule and departed 5.7 days late. A growing queue of ships is sitting at anchor, and restrictions on discharging foreign cargo, dangerous goods and special equipment remain in force. Meanwhile, cargo diverted from other regional hubs is piling onto terminal operations that were already stretched, pushing landside dwell times up further.

How bad is Sharjah?

Sharjah — specifically the Sajaa area — is heavily congested too, though less severely than Khor Fakkan. As of 30 October, vessels there are waiting roughly three days for a berth. Average arrival and departure delays have both exceeded four days over the past 30 days. So the pattern is consistent across both Gulf of Oman-facing gateways: late in, late out, and queues building at anchor.

What's happening beyond the quay?

This is where the story gets expensive for shippers. Terminal transfers from Khor Fakkan and Fujairah to Jebel Ali, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi used to run at around five days. They now take 12–15 days — a near tripling of inland transit time on routes that many supply chains treat as routine feeder connections.

Those extended dwell times are eating into yard capacity that was already constrained. The knock-on effect is slower movement of cargo through the entire UAE logistics network, not just the two congested ports. If your goods route through the UAE for transhipment, the delay now starts before your container even leaves the country.

Are carriers blanking or omitting ports?

Not yet, and that's the key commercial nuance. Some carriers are reducing allocations for Khor Fakkan and Sharjah in response to the congestion, but Kuehne+Nagel reports there are currently no widespread direct port omissions and no alternative gateways being actively pushed by carriers as replacements.

The reason is simple: alternative carrier gateway solutions are proving challenging to stand up. That gap has shifted demand toward established alternative transport options — Kuehne+Nagel cites its own Landbridge solutions as one beneficiary — as shippers hunt for routing that doesn't sit in an anchorage for a week.

What does this change for shippers?

Kuehne+Nagel's advice is concrete: diversify both carrier and gateway usage rather than relying on a single routing option. Where suitable, shippers should consider alternative gateways such as Salalah and Duqm. Significant trucking capacity is currently available from both locations, which creates a genuine opportunity to spread cargo flows and keep supply chains stable.

The forwarder also recommends factoring additional lead time into shipment planning, given how quickly the operating environment is moving. Congestion at Khor Fakkan and Sharjah, plus longer inland and terminal transfer times, should sit front of mind for anyone planning cargo through the UAE in the coming weeks.

Will it get worse before it gets better?

Kuehne+Nagel expects it will. The situation is forecast to deteriorate over the coming weeks, driven by two forces: continued exceptionally strong demand into the Middle East — amplified by precautionary inventory building — and alternative gateways struggling to absorb the extra volumes being pushed their way.

That combination of high cargo volumes, constrained yard capacity and extended transfer times is likely to keep eroding schedule reliability. For shippers, the practical picture is simple: berth queues near a week, inland transfers stretched to two, and no carrier-led rerouting coming to the rescue. Planning around Salalah, Duqm and buffer lead times looks less like an option and more like a requirement while the Gulf's gateway crunch runs its course.