Invoices for some cargo moves have jumped four to six times as carriers reroute freight from Gulf sea lanes onto long-haul trucks. The Financial Times says the shift is already adding thousands of euros to landed costs and is appearing on invoices and delivery schedules before it shows up in official statistics. Freightos FAX data published in The Loadstar shows air-sea rates from southern Asia up 36% to North America since 5 March 2026 and 54% to Europe since 3 March 2026. Households can expect longer waits for imports, while businesses face higher landed costs and larger working-capital needs.

The number that matters is simple. Invoices for some cargo moves are four to six times higher than normal. The market move isn't driven by a single port closure. It's driven by logistics choices. Shipping lines and forwarders have been diverting flows away from disrupted Gulf sea and air corridors and onto trucks over much longer distances. Financial Times, The Loadstar and Trade Finance Global reporting all show the same pattern.

Why trucks are suddenly expensive

Road freight was never intended to carry the bulk of containerised trade across the region. Lorries can handle only a fraction of the volumes that vessels and short-sea services move. That mismatch is now producing large congestion and price effects. TruKKer founder and CEO Gaurav Biswas told sector commentators that trucks, which once completed multiple short port deliveries, are now being asked to perform single extended runs. Fleet utilisation is rising and spot road rates are following.

Port geometry is making a bad problem worse. AGBI figures cited by the Financial Times show Khor Fakkan on the UAE east coast has annual capacity around 5 million TEUs, while Jebel Ali and Khalifa together handle more than 25 million TEUs. Before the recent disruption, Khor Fakkan had never processed more than 3 million TEUs in a year. Those imbalances force cargos arriving on the east coast to be redistributed inland and to west-coast destinations, creating extra handoffs and much longer land legs. AGBI also reported that a typical port-to-destination run from Jebel Ali took about one to one-and-a-half hours, while the same trip from Khor Fakkan now stretches to roughly a day and a half. Fuel, labour and utilisation costs rise fast on trips of that length.

Border and customs frictions add a second layer of delay. Trade Finance Global and The Loadstar report growing customs delays, congestion and infrastructural hurdles when freight is moved in bond across borders. Mike Duggan, head of cargo at Oman Air, said moving cargo in bond across borders is the primary bottleneck and that trucking is the problem for rapid redistribution. Oman has, for now, become a functioning hub in the disruption. Oman Air has added extra flights from Muscat to European and regional destinations and increased cargo capacity to accommodate diverted perishables and express freight.

Mastheads

How carriers and corridors are responding

Carriers are deploying a mix of stopgaps. Trade Finance Global and sector reporting name Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd as offering land solutions, temporary storage or returns to port of origin. Operators are exploring road links through Saudi Arabia from Red Sea ports and longer Central Asian routes to link Asian production hubs with Europe. Those alternatives bring higher fuel surcharges and mismatched infrastructure.

They're costly and operationally imperfect, but they're available options when maritime handling and short-sea services are constrained.

Air-sea tradelanes show the price effect in hard numbers. Freightos FAX data published in The Loadstar shows rates from southern Asia to North America climbed 36% since 5 March 2026, while southern Asia to Europe rates surged 54% since 3 March 2026. Financial Times reporting, cited in a market alert dated 17 May 2026, says those spikes are already appearing on invoices and delivery schedules and are adding thousands of euros to the landed cost of goods before they show up in official statistics.

Global maritime traffic hasn't shut down. Reuters reporting cited in sector coverage notes that oil tankers have continued transits through the Strait of Hormuz. Still, the threat of delay, diversions and longer handling times has been enough to alter carriers' routing and pricing decisions. Logistics providers, importers and retailers are the primary commercial victims of the repricing. Road-haulage operators are the primary beneficiaries, but they're encountering strains on capacity as demand spikes.

For businesses the effect is direct. Firms running lean inventories or fixed-price contracts face higher landed costs and bigger working-capital needs. Retailers and importers report longer lead times and more volatile delivery schedules. The combination of higher transport invoices and longer cash-conversion cycles will press margins unless contracts and inventory strategies are changed.

My read is that the market is reassigning risk away from sea legs and onto land legs and balance sheets that are less prepared for sustained high utilisation and customs friction. That shift will be visible in company margins and in the invoices corporate treasuries pay over the coming reporting periods.

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The next concrete pricing readouts will come from continued Freightos FAX releases and carrier operational updates as ports and overland corridors adjust to sustained higher flows.

This article was created with AI assistance.