A direct container loop between China and the Gulf is back. On 13 October 2026, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd told customers that their Far East–Middle East service (FM1 in the Maersk network, AGX in Hapag-Lloyd’s) restarts this week after nearly seven months offline. The first vessel, the 8,400 TEU Maersk Athabasca, departs Qingdao on 17 October. If you move cargo on the Shipping from China to UAE lane, this changes how your boxes reach Dubai.
One detail matters more than everything else in the announcement. The Gulf call is no longer Jebel Ali. It is Khor Fakkan.
What was announced
The new rotation runs Qingdao – Ningbo – Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia) – Khor Fakkan – Singapore, then back to Qingdao. Hapag-Lloyd markets the same loop as AGX with a weekly frequency. According to the proforma schedule, the Maersk Athabasca (voyage 642W) reaches Khor Fakkan around 16 November.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Service names | FM1 (Maersk) / AGX (Hapag-Lloyd), Gemini Cooperation |
| First sailing | 17 October 2026, Qingdao |
| First vessel | Maersk Athabasca, 8,400 TEU, voyage 642W |
| Rotation | Qingdao – Ningbo – Tanjung Pelepas – Khor Fakkan – Singapore |
| Proforma arrival at Khor Fakkan | 16 November 2026 |
| Suspended since | 27 March 2026 |
| Pre-suspension setup | 8 vessels, average 10,900 TEU |
The service went dark on 27 March, three weeks after the US–Iran war began and the Strait of Hormuz closed to most commercial container traffic. Before the suspension it ran eight ships averaging 10,900 TEU. Maersk says booking restrictions and cargo acceptance guidelines from the conflict period remain in force, and that its landside products will feed cargo from Khor Fakkan into the Upper Gulf.
In plain terms: you can once again book a weekly direct sailing from North and East China ports into the UAE. You just cannot book it to Jebel Ali anymore.
Why Khor Fakkan, and why it matters
Khor Fakkan sits on the Gulf of Oman, on the far side of the Hajar mountains from Dubai. It answers to Sharjah, not Dubai, and it sits outside the Strait of Hormuz. That geography, not capacity, is why it won the call.
Since the closure, the terminal operator Gulftainer has rebuilt Khor Fakkan from a quiet transshipment port into the main ocean gateway for Gulf-bound boxes. Weekly throughput went from roughly 8,000 TEU before the conflict to about 65,000 TEU now. The truck gate did not exist at this scale either: the terminal handled around 100 truck moves a day before, and now clears about 8,500. Gulftainer wants to push weekly volume to 100,000 TEU and has announced roughly USD 2 billion of investment to reach 10 million TEU a year within three years.
The land side has grown just as fast. DP World said it has moved 500,000 TEU through Gulf overland corridors since March and added 700 trucks to its fleet. Etihad Rail and AD Ports started running a container train from Fujairah to Abu Dhabi’s industrial city three times a week in September. Dubai Customs has allowed bonded road transit from Khor Fakkan and Fujairah to Jebel Ali since March.
None of this comes free. The east-coast gateways are congested in a way Jebel Ali never was:
| Port | Median vessel wait, 27 Sep – 3 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Fujairah | 6.9 days |
| Khor Fakkan | 4.6 days |
| Sohar (Oman) | 0.8 days |
Trucks have queued for up to 12 hours at the Khor Fakkan and Fujairah gates, and a DP World official put the overland leg at four to five times the cost of sailing straight into Jebel Ali. We covered the Fujairah option in depth earlier this year, and it is still the right read on the east-coast picture: Fujairah Port as a Hormuz bypass for China–GCC cargo.
What the rotation means for your transit time
If your supplier loads in Qingdao or Ningbo, the new loop gives you a direct ocean leg to UAE waters for the first time since March. That is the good news. The rest of the journey depends on the land bridge.
Cargo for Dubai and the northern emirates clears at Khor Fakkan and moves by bonded truck to its final destination. Cargo for Abu Dhabi can use the new rail link out of Fujairah. Cargo for the Upper Gulf (Dammam, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait) transfers to intra-Gulf feeders or longer land legs out of Sharjah, the same pattern Maersk has been running through its landbridge program since spring (and the same program it briefly paused in September before restoring it, as we reported in our Maersk Gulf landbridge update).
Carriers are not publishing reliable door-to-door transit times for these routings, and you should not accept one if a sales rep volunteers it. Ask two questions instead: which vessel is my cargo on, and what is the expected discharge date at which port. Everything after that is a land operation with its own queues.
The rate picture right now
Direct capacity back on the lane has not brought rates down. The Gulf lane trades on Hormuz risk, not on Suez capacity, and the numbers show it.
| Route | Rate | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai → Jebel Ali | USD 8,416 per 40ft | 15 Oct 2026 | Drewry |
| China → Khor Fakkan | USD 10,626 per 40ft spot average (+479% since 28 Feb) | Sep 2026 | Xeneta |
| China → Jeddah | USD 10,870 per 40ft (+256% since 28 Feb) | Sep 2026 | Xeneta |
| Asia–Middle East trade | +130% year on year | Aug 2026 | Container Trades Statistics |
The Shanghai–Jebel Ali figure held above USD 8,000 through September while Asia–Europe rates fell for thirteen straight weeks. Conflict surcharges are still layered on top: Maersk keeps its Hormuz transit fee of USD 1,000 per container plus emergency freight rates of up to USD 3,800 per box, and the other lines levy their own versions. If you want to know what each line item is supposed to cover, our breakdown of PSS, WRS and redirection fees maps the terminology. When you compare quotes, ask for the all-in number including every surcharge, and treat a suspiciously cheap quote as a quote missing line items. Current UAE pricing benchmarks are in our shipping cost guide for the China–UAE lane.
The risk has not gone away
This is still a war zone routing. On 13 October, projectile hits damaged three container ships and a tanker inside Hormuz, and the 2,824 TEU GFS Pride sank on 14 October with its containers still floating in the strait, the second vessel lost since February. Tanker attacks hit a seven-month high in the week to 8 October, including near Fujairah.
Hormuz itself remains closed to container shipping in all but name: about three and a half transits a day against a pre-crisis norm of 85, and only ten container-ship transits in the whole of September. Maersk’s decision to anchor the relaunch at Khor Fakkan is a bet that this does not change soon. For background on why rates stay high while Suez recovers, see our October analysis of the Suez–Hormuz split and our war risk insurance explainer.
What to do before your next booking
- Confirm the discharge port in writing at booking. “UAE” is not an answer. Khor Fakkan, Fujairah, Jebel Ali and Sohar lead to different costs and timelines.
- Ask whether your quote includes the land bridge and every conflict surcharge, or whether those arrive as surprises later.
- Add buffer for the east-coast queues. A 4.6-day median wait at Khor Fakkan plus gate congestion means your “arrival” date and your delivery date are two different days.
- Match the routing to the cargo’s tolerance. Urgent restock belongs on air freight; the new FM1 loop rewards importers who can plan around water-plus-truck timelines.
- Book earlier than feels necessary. Q4 is peak season for the Gulf, and the first rotations of a relaunched service always overbook. Our GCC peak season booking guide covers the calendar.
The FM1/AGX relaunch is good news. It puts scheduled, direct ocean capacity back on the China–UAE lane and gives Gulf importers a weekly rhythm they have missed since spring. Just read the routing carefully before you celebrate the rate.
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