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Companies & Markets Nov 2, 2026 · 7 min read

COSCO Shipping Ports Q3: Abu Dhabi down 76%, Jeddah up 20%

COSCO’s port numbers map the Hormuz detour: Abu Dhabi down 76%, Jeddah up 20%

COSCO Shipping Ports’ terminal in Abu Dhabi handled 97,734 TEU in the third quarter of 2026. A TEU is a twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard box count. That is a fall of 76.4% on the same quarter last year.

The company, the separately listed ports arm of China’s COSCO Shipping group, reported the figures on 29 October. Over the same three months, its Red Sea Gateway Terminal in Jeddah grew 19.8% to 899,226 TEU. Its Suez Canal Container Terminal at Port Said grew 8.4% to 1.66 million TEU.

Our view is simple. The Strait of Hormuz partly reopened in June, but container cargo for the Gulf has not come back through it. It is landing on the Red Sea and Suez side instead. One port operator’s results are not a market survey. But COSCO runs terminals on both sides of this detour, so its numbers are a cleaner read than most.

What the numbers say

The group-level picture is solid. Total throughput rose 8.4% to 42.27 million TEU in Q3, according to Container News and Baird Maritime. Equity throughput, which counts only COSCO’s share of each terminal based on its ownership stake, rose 8.1% to 12.88 million TEU. FreshPlaza, which carried the full release, gives the exact totals: 42,266,553 TEU and 12,884,563 TEU.

Overseas terminals did the heavy lifting. They handled 11.32 million TEU, up 19.4%, and made up 26.8% of the group total. A year earlier, Container News reported overseas terminals at 9.48 million TEU and a 24.3% share. Chinese terminals grew 4.9% to 30.94 million TEU. The Yangtze River Delta, which includes Shanghai, was the only Chinese region to fall, down 0.3%.

The terminal-by-terminal figures from Container News: - Piraeus, Greece: 1.09 million TEU, up 11.4%. - Suez Canal Container Terminal, Egypt: 1.66 million TEU, up 8.4%. - Red Sea Gateway Terminal, Jeddah: 899,226 TEU, up 19.8%. - Antwerp Gateway, Belgium: 684,232 TEU, up 16.3%. - CSP Chancay, Peru: 139,669 TEU, up 24.9%. - CSP Abu Dhabi, UAE: 97,734 TEU, down 76.4%.

By our arithmetic, a 76.4% fall to 97,734 TEU means Abu Dhabi handled roughly 414,000 TEU in Q3 2025. So about 316,000 TEU a quarter has gone from that one terminal. For scale, Shipping Telegraph reported the same terminal at 335,247 TEU in Q3 2023. The current quarter is under a third of that.

The Gulf has not recovered

The Abu Dhabi fall matches what is happening across the Gulf. Marine Insight reported in September that the Strait of Hormuz was close to shutting down from March 2026. It partially and unevenly reopened in June.

The effect on Gulf ports was severe. Jebel Ali in Dubai handled 3.14 million TEU in the first half of 2026, down from 7.77 million a year earlier. In Q2 alone it handled 374,000 TEU, down more than 90%. The analyst Alphaliner estimated Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi, where CSP Abu Dhabi sits, lost at least 50% of its container volume. The reason is geography. As Marine Insight put it: “Jebel Ali is inside the Persian Gulf, so most vessels calling at the port have to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.” The same applies to Khalifa.

What stands out in COSCO’s numbers is the timing. Q3 covers July to September, after the June reopening. Abu Dhabi still fell 76.4%. That tells us carriers have not restored their Gulf calls, even with the strait partly open. In our view, insurance, schedule risk and the cost of a ship stuck inside the Gulf all weigh on that decision.

This was a costly bet for Abu Dhabi. Drewry noted in March that the emirate had invested about US$1 billion between 2022 and 2025 to attract COSCO and CMA CGM to Khalifa. Drewry also expected Khalifa’s relay transhipment to move to hubs in South-East Asia, South Asia, North Africa or the Mediterranean. Transhipment means moving boxes from one ship to another at a hub before they go on to their final port. About 65% of Khalifa’s volume was transhipment, according to Drewry. That business can leave quickly, and is slow to win back.

Where the cargo went

Jeddah and Port Said are on the other side of the detour. Jeddah serves Saudi Arabia’s west coast and can feed the kingdom by road. Port Said sits at the northern end of the Suez Canal and works as a relay hub, where boxes switch ships between Asia-Europe and regional services.

Drewry’s March analysis set out the limits of that switch. It listed Jeddah, King Abdullah Port and Duba on the Red Sea as offering capacity for Saudi domestic cargo, but noted there is no rail from Jeddah to Riyadh. Jeddah to Riyadh is about 950 km by road. Jeddah to Dammam, on the Gulf coast, is about 1,400 km. Drewry’s conclusion was blunt: “no combination of available bypass ports and inland logistics can fully substitute for Hormuz access in the short term.” In its six-to-24-month outlook, it estimated Gulf logistics costs rising three to five times.

Suez is also part of the story. The company says it wants to “capture the opportunities brought by the recovery of the Suez Canal”, as quoted by Baird Maritime. Container News reported its plan to strengthen its terminal network along the Suez route “as traffic recovers”. Suez Canal Container Terminal handled 4.70 million TEU in the first nine months, up 17.3%, according to Container News’s September throughput report. In our reading, two things are happening at once. Some Asia-Europe traffic is returning to Suez, as the company says, and Gulf cargo is being pushed towards Red Sea gateways. Both favour COSCO’s Jeddah and Port Said terminals.

Piraeus fits the Suez story too. It rose 11.4% in Q3, after a weak 2025. But at 1.09 million TEU it is still below the 1.19 million TEU it handled in Q3 2023, per Shipping Telegraph. The Mediterranean hub has recovered, but not fully.

Growth without profit

One number should give investors pause. Q3 revenue rose 13% to US$484.3million,andgrossprofitrose19.3%toUS$128.1 million. But profit attributable to shareholders, meaning what is left for COSCO Shipping Ports’ own investors after minority partners take their share, was US$82.6million.AyearearlieritwasUS$82.5 million. That is flat.

Over nine months the picture is better. Revenue rose 12.6% to US$1.39billionandattributableprofitrose19.7%toUS$316.3 million. The published reports do not explain the flat third quarter. Our view is that a portfolio this exposed to a single conflict zone carries costs that do not show in the box count. A terminal running at a quarter of last year’s volume still has to pay its staff, leases and debt.

What forwarders should do

For forwarders, the practical lessons are these.

First, treat Gulf routings as unstable, not restored. A partly open strait is not the same as normal service. COSCO’s Q3 numbers suggest carriers are still avoiding Gulf calls months after the reopening. Confirm the actual port of discharge on every Gulf booking, not just the destination on the quote.

Second, price the land leg. If cargo for Riyadh lands at Jeddah, it needs 950 km of trucking. If cargo for the UAE lands at Khorfakkan or Sohar on the Gulf of Oman, Drewry puts those at roughly 130 km and 230 km from Dubai. Build those costs and transit days into quotes rather than absorbing them later.

Third, expect Red Sea gateways to get busier. Jeddah up nearly 20% in a quarter means more pressure on berth windows, yard space and trucks. Ask your carriers and agents about dwell times, meaning how long boxes sit in the terminal, before committing to tight delivery dates.

Fourth, watch Suez schedules. If Asia-Europe services keep returning to the canal, transit times to the Mediterranean and North Europe shorten. That changes routing options and rate comparisons with the Cape of Good Hope.

Our call

Our prediction: when COSCO Shipping Ports publishes its fourth-quarter 2026 figures, due by the end of March 2027, CSP Abu Dhabi will again show less than 150,000 TEU for the quarter. Red Sea Gateway Terminal in Jeddah will again grow by more than 10% year on year. We expect Gulf direct calls to stay thin through the end of the year, and the Red Sea side to keep the cargo it has gained.

Sources