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The New Route around Hormuz Involves a Massive Convoy of Trucks
(Wall Street Journal) Ed Ballard - In a mechanized revival of the caravans of goods-laden camels that once sustained Arabian commerce, highways, railroads and ports in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman have been transformed into an emergency logistics lifeline, circumventing the Strait of Hormuz waterway. Bob Wilt, CEO of the Saudi Arabian mining company Maaden, said, "We've got 3,500 trucks running from the Gulf to the Red Sea" to move fertilizer across the kingdom. Wilt said Maaden will have caught up on its export backlog by the end of May. This is making a meaningful dent in a fertilizer shortage that is threatening the global food supply. In recent weeks, cargoes of phosphate used in fertilizer from the Red Sea port of Yanbu have arrived in Djibouti, Thailand and Argentina. Every shipment that makes it across the desert blunts the pressure from a closed strait and gives Gulf governments room to wait out the negotiations and shift the balance of power. Shipping companies including MSC and Maersk are trucking goods across the Arabian Peninsula. The mobilization can't replace the capacity of shipping or compete on cost, but it has become a shock absorber in some key markets.