Noatum Logistics, a subsidiary of the AD Ports Group, has signed an agreement with Hafeet Rail to run a daily container freight train between Sohar in Oman, and the Emirati railway hub at Al Ain, which in turn is directly through-connected to Khalifa Port, but also to the ports of Jebel Ali, and Fujairah. This will be the first cross-border connection of what is planned to be a GCC-wide network. The train will be configured to carry 276 TEUs, equivalent to 15,000 tons of general cargo. A daily service in both directions will be offered from the start, to be expanded as demand increases.
Noatum Logistics already runs a similar such container service between Khalifa Port and Fujairah, and hence has the container handling infrastructure in place for dockside to rail operations.
The Hafeet Rail line between Al Ain and Sohar Port, not yet complete, is a joint project between Etihad Rail, Oman Rail and Mubadala Investment. When in service, there will be competition between Fujairah and Sohar Port to win traffic wishing to save on sailing time, insurance and shipping costs by avoiding passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The two ports are only 50 miles apart, but Sohar may have a marginal advantage as it is a safer distance from Iran, deeper into the Gulf of Oman and closer to the sea routes to Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Port of Sohar is operated by Asyad, Hutchinson and the Port of Rotterdam, and has seen rapid expansion in recent years as the Sohar Industrial Zone has grown. Besides steel, ferrochrome, polypropylene, aluminum and foodstuff production complexes, the Zone also hosts a large rare earth refining facility producing antimony trioxide.
Sohar has attracted foreign direct investment of more than $26 billion, and acreage allocated to its industrial zone has had to be significantly increased since it was first set up in 2002. The port handled a 15% growth in container traffic during 2024, rising to 942,000 TEUs, but bulk cargo handling grew by 72%.
The planned rail network linking the UAE and Oman (Hafeet Rail)
In Hafeet Rail's next phase of construction, it is planned to add Port Sultan Qaboos in Muscat to the network. The final goal is then to add in Duqm and Salalah, providing a freight route for Saudi Arabia directly to the Arabian Sea.
Saudi Arabia has long sought a trade route to the Arabian Sea which avoids the perils of both the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz. Driving a route through Oman to Duqm and Salalah is a more realistic goal than attempting to create a similar egress through a permanently unstable Yemen.
