Jeddah Transit Reopens, but Shippers Now Carry More of the Clearance Risk

Hapag-Lloyd is accepting Upper Gulf transit cargo via Jeddah again. Following an update from the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani), the carrier told customers that in-transit movements via Jeddah may proceed for cargo destined for the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Iraq. CMA CGM has also eased its own restrictions on merchant-haulage transit through Jeddah, subject to its own documentation requirements.

For Hapag-Lloyd cargo, the reopening shifts much of the clearance work onto the customer side. For containers discharged from 1 August 2026, starting with the arrival of the MV Maersk Alette, customers are responsible for arranging customs clearance and onward transport out of Jeddah themselves. Any cost arising from delayed clearance, storage, terminal handling, customs formalities, relocation or onward movement is for the shipper’s account. For future bookings, Hapag-Lloyd also requires a Letter of Indemnity or written confirmation committing the shipment to clearance and onward movement within 15 days of discharge.

What closed, and what just reopened

The Jeddah cross-border route closed in stages. On 1 June, Hapag-Lloyd withdrew its Carrier’s Haulage solution via Jeddah for reefer and special cargo moving cross-border to the Upper Gulf, and applied the same restriction to Merchant Haulage bookings where the consignee sat outside Saudi Arabia. On 9 July it stopped accepting Merchant Haulage cross-border movements via Jeddah altogether. Affected cargo was rerouted through Khorfakkan and moved by landbridge to Sharjah and Jebel Ali.

CMA CGM followed a similar sequence. It paused acceptance of Jeddah bookings for merchant haulage to countries other than Saudi Arabia on 23 June, warning that a box booked to Jeddah with a consignee elsewhere in the Middle East would be routed to the consignee’s country via Khorfakkan rather than discharged. CMA CGM India issued a reopening notice on 17 August allowing transit cargo through Jeddah where the bill of lading carries a Saudi-based notify party. Maersk applied comparable curbs on landside cross-border transits through Jeddah over the same period.

The carrier rules are similar, but not identical. Both Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM require a Saudi-based notify party on the paperwork. Hapag-Lloyd goes further by stating that the Saudi party must be able to undertake the required customs clearance.

The booking requirements, item by item

Hapag-Lloyd published its conditions for future Jeddah transit bookings as a checklist. Every row is a document field that can block a booking.

Requirement	Detail
Notify Party	Must be located in Saudi Arabia
Second Notify Party	Required for To Order cases, also located in Saudi Arabia
Transit clause	Must be clearly included in the B/L draft
Payer party	Must be located in Saudi Arabia
Collecting office	Must be the Hapag-Lloyd Saudi Arabia office
Clearance responsibility	Customer is responsible for timely customs clearance and onward movement

Hapag-Lloyd requirements for Jeddah transit bookings to the Upper Gulf, as published in the carrier’s Saudi Arabia local news advisory, August 2026.

On top of the document fields, the carrier requires a Letter of Indemnity or written confirmation before it will accept a future booking. The confirmation has to state that the shipment will be cleared and moved onward within 15 days from the date of discharge in Jeddah. Payments applicable in Saudi Arabia run through ODeX Saudi Arabia, and a Delivery Order is only released once everything applicable has been settled. Hapag-Lloyd notes that payment confirmation can lag where a transaction is held for internal verification or bank compliance checks.

Why Hapag-Lloyd’s 15-day commitment is tighter than it looks

Fifteen days sounds generous for a customs clearance and an onward truck move. It is less generous measured against how Jeddah is currently running. Trade press reporting in mid-August put container release times at the port at six to eight days, with vessels incurring berthing delays that can reach around 10 days. Those figures come from industry updates circulating among carriers and forwarders rather than published port statistics, so treat them as directional. A six-day release time alone would consume 40% of Hapag-Lloyd’s 15-day commitment before the container is released from the port.

The exposure is not limited to storage. Where cargo stays uncleared or onward movement is delayed, Hapag-Lloyd reserves the right to relocate the container to another location it deems operationally necessary to keep Jeddah from congesting further, subject to operational and vessel availability. The costs of that relocation go to the shipper. A box that remains uncleared can therefore end up somewhere that was never on the intended routing, with a new set of charges attached and a longer path to the consignee.

If your Gulf bookings now clear through Jeddah on merchant haulage, discharge visibility becomes one of the controls around that exposure. It will not solve customs, payment or trucking delays, but it can stop the clearance process from starting days after the container has already landed. Walk through how ops teams set container-level alerts across carriers.

The clock starts at a milestone merchant haulage often misses

Under carrier haulage, the line is arranging the inland leg and tracks its own discharge and gate-out events as part of that movement. Under merchant haulage, the clearance and inland responsibilities sit with customer-side parties that may not be watching the vessel or terminal events themselves. That gap matters more when a booking includes a time-bound clearance commitment measured from discharge.

The event picture also thins out on merchant haulage. As set out in our breakdown of container tracking milestones, a carrier-haulage move typically produces both a gate-out and a delivered event, while a merchant-haulage move may only produce the gate-out. The container leaves the terminal and the visibility trail gets shorter at exactly the point where the customer takes over the inland movement.

One part of the change does reach back to 1 August. Hapag-Lloyd’s customer responsibility for customs clearance and onward movement applies to containers discharged from that date, so boxes already on the ground in Jeddah may fall under those terms. The separate 15-day Letter of Indemnity requirement is stated as a condition for future bookings and should not be assumed to apply retroactively to every container discharged since 1 August.

The wider displacement of Gulf cargo is substantial. DP World’s second-quarter figures showed a roughly 90% year-over-year fall in Jebel Ali container volumes, although those figures do not show how much of the displaced cargo has shifted specifically through Jeddah. The broader point is that alternative Gulf and Red Sea gateways are absorbing traffic in a network that remains heavily disrupted.

What else Jeddah is costing right now

Carriers have also added Jeddah-related charges while congestion persists.

Carrier	Charge	Scope
Hapag-Lloyd	Dangerous Goods Premium, US$1,000 per container	Hazardous cargo from North Europe and the Mediterranean to Jeddah. The existing DGP rises for all container types carrying dangerous goods except DG Classes 1 and 7, for sailings commencing 1 September
Turkon Line	US$150 per TEU, US$300 per 40ft	Jeddah bookings ex-Turkey

Jeddah-related charges announced or reported in August 2026. Confirm current amounts against your own carrier tariff before quoting.

King Abdullah Port is also being used as an alternative Red Sea gateway for some Upper Gulf routings while Jeddah works through the backlog. Whether that option is available on your contract, and what it does to your inland leg, is worth checking before the next booking rather than after a routing changes.

What to re-check this week

Boxes already discharged. List every Hapag-Lloyd container discharged at Jeddah on or after 1 August with an Upper Gulf final destination, and confirm who is handling customs clearance and onward movement. Do not assume the separate 15-day future-booking commitment applies unless it forms part of that shipment’s booking terms or confirmation.
Open B/L drafts. Confirm a Saudi-based notify party, a second Saudi notify party on To Order shipments, the transit clause on the draft, a Saudi-based payer, and Hapag-Lloyd Saudi Arabia as collecting office.
LOI status. For future Hapag-Lloyd bookings under the revised requirements, check whether the Letter of Indemnity or written confirmation has been lodged. The carrier says the booking will not be accepted without it.
Payment path. Route applicable Saudi payments through ODeX Saudi Arabia and build in time for bank compliance checks, because the Delivery Order will not release until applicable payments have been credited.
Your other carriers. CMA CGM also requires a Saudi-based notify party, while Maersk and other lines have applied their own routing restrictions and alternatives. Confirm each carrier’s current Jeddah rules rather than assuming the terms are uniform.
Alternative gateway. Establish whether King Abdullah Port is available under your existing contract terms and what it changes for the onward leg.

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