In short
DP World and the Fujairah Ports Authority have struck a 50-year concession for two new terminals on the UAE east coast. Al Rugaylat will handle containers — up to 2.5 million TEU a year — plus general cargo. Dibba is sized at 3.6 million tonnes of general cargo. For services bound for the Indian Ocean, routing through Fujairah shaves three to five days off the voyage versus a classic Arabian Gulf call. It also responds to a shipper demand DP World itself has measured: 86% of chief supply chain officers in its Global Trade Observatory call access to alternative routes a competitive edge.
What exactly will be built
The agreement was signed in July 2026 and covers two sites:
- Al Rugaylat — a container and multipurpose terminal with up to 2.5m TEU of containers a year, 1.7m tonnes of general cargo and 190,000 car-equivalent units.
- Dibba — a general-cargo terminal of up to 3.6m tonnes a year.
Once online, DP World expects total UAE container capacity to rise from 19.4m TEU to roughly 22m TEU. Construction is pencilled in at 24–30 months from the actual start date; as of 16 October 2026 the project's financial and organisational structure is still being finalised.
Why "three to five days" is realistic
Fujairah is the only major UAE port on the Gulf of Oman — a direct ocean frontage. Container ships heading east can call there without doubling back through the Arabian Gulf. On typical Indian Ocean legs — to Indian ports, East Africa and South-East Asia — DP World pegs the saving at three to five days of ship time. In practice that means two things: fewer days of freight in the cost line and a steadier box-return cycle for the shipper.
What UAE businesses get
For exporters and importers working the Indian, African and South-East Asian legs, a second full-scale maritime "front" is first and foremost an alternative when Jebel Ali runs hot. DP World Group CEO Yuvraj Narayan puts it plainly: Jebel Ali is running at a very high utilisation, and Fujairah brings extra capacity without diluting its role as the main hub.
For business models built on importing raw materials from Indian and African coasts and reselling into the GCC, that is a chance to shorten the leg and release trapped working capital. For companies planning to set up a logistics centre in the UAE, Fujairah broadens the free-zone menu: the east coast now gets its own container gateway, which raises the value of warehousing operations in the surrounding industrial zones.
What DP World's own survey found
The deal rests not just on macro forecasts but on fresh Global Trade Observatory data. A survey of 103 supply-chain leaders across 14 countries and 9 industries found:
- 86% of chief supply chain officers call access to alternative and multimodal routes a competitive advantage;
- 84% rank resilience and choice above pure cost reduction;
- 71% plan to diversify their supplier base within the next 12 months.
That is why the port is useful not just to DP World but to shippers themselves: a second entry point into the country cuts congestion risk and gives room to rewire routes — especially for companies using the UAE as a trading hub under its CEPA agreements with India and Asian partners.
What the UAE gets overall
DP World is building out the landside too: by August 2026, the integrated GCC road-and-rail network had moved 500,000 TEU since March, running around 3,000 freight trips a day after adding 700 trucks. Combined with the new Fujairah terminals, that stitches together a two-loop system: a maritime front on both coasts plus an overland corridor across the Gulf states. For the country, it diversifies transit load; for business, it widens the menu of ways to build a chain.
Timeline and project status
The current stage is an agreement in principle. The sides still have to close the financing model and lock in the works schedule. The publicly named reference point is 24–30 months of construction from the moment it begins. For business planning, it is reasonable to count the first physical offload at Fujairah as a matter of the next two to three years; DP World and the Fujairah Ports Authority will announce the exact dates separately.
Sources: Gulf News (16.10.2026); AGBI, Semafor and FreightWaves coverage of the July 2026 deal; DP World Global Trade Observatory data.
