UAE port operators seek to redraw the region’s trade map
16 December 2025
Commentary
Yasir Iqbal
Construction writer
The UAE’s port giants, AD Ports Group and DP World, are moving early to lock themselves into the region’s future trade map before it fully settles.
DP World’s Tartous port agreement in Syria, its push into Afghanistan border logistics and the launch of a Dubai-Umm Qasr corridor to Iraq, alongside AD Ports’ expanding footprint in Egypt and interest in Kuwait’s Shuaiba port, point to a clear strategic aim: controlling the gateways that shape cargo flows in an era of geopolitical fragmentation and supply-chain rebalancing.
These moves are less about immediate volumes than about optionality and influence. Tartous, for example, is a bet on eventual normalisation and reconstruction-driven trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. Early entry gives operators the chance to shape standards, relationships and hinterland connectivity as constraints ease.
Iraq and Afghanistan offer access to large, underserved hinterlands where reliability and border friction matter as much as price. Control of key choke points in these markets allows operators to steer trade towards their wider networks.
Egypt and Kuwait serve different roles. Egypt anchors the East-West artery and feeder dynamics around Suez. Kuwait sits within the northern Gulf’s evolving trade story, linked to Iraq-adjacent reconstruction demand. In both cases, port control translates into influence over regional routing decisions.
The commercial logic is straightforward. Ports alone are low-margin assets; value lies in layering logistics zones, warehousing, customs services, trucking, feeder shipping and digital platforms on top, turning each foothold into a base for capturing end-to-end supply-chain spend.
Together, these expansions reinforce the UAE’s broader ambition: extending hub status beyond its own shoreline and embedding UAE-linked infrastructure into the practical workings of regional trade.
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