German freight and logistics operator Rhenus has opened a new land corridor through Jordan to move cargo between Europe and the main Gulf markets. Launched less than a month ago, the route is a direct response to persistent disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, where merchant traffic remains exposed to Iranian harassment and insurance penalties. Rhenus says the corridor has already drawn strong interest, with more than ten Full Truck Load (FTL) shipments completed for a combined volume above 190 metric tons.
Operational design
The service combines road transport and multimodal links, coordinated by Rhenus teams in Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Transit times come out at 19 to 22 days from European origins and 10 to 13 days from Turkey, with deliveries into Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Dammam), the UAE (Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. The mixed fleet of tilt trailers and refrigerated units is meant to cover both standard industrial freight and temperature-sensitive cargo.
Rhenus is also offering shippers the option to combine the new corridor with the operator’s global air and ocean network, an obvious play to capture multimodal contracts as carriers reroute capacity. The Jordan transit shortens the exposure to the Red Sea bottleneck without forcing customers onto fully airborne lanes that come with three- to five-times higher unit costs.
Live use cases
One of the early deployments was an urgent shipment for FTE, a supplier of equipment to the oil and gas industry. The cargo moved from Lyon to Dubai in 18 days, combining road haulage with ferry segments through Trieste and Mersin, then a final overland leg through Jordan to the UAE. Rhenus said meeting the deadline avoided a production interruption at the customer’s site. For shippers used to ocean transit times of six to eight weeks during peak Red Sea disruption, that performance is the selling point.
Why it matters
Land corridors between Europe and the Gulf are not new in concept, but commercial operators have struggled to build reliable schedules through them. The Jordan route is one of several alternatives, alongside Northern Black Sea / Caspian land bridges and Saudi-hosted dry-port concepts, that 3PLs are now formalizing. Expect more network announcements from European forwarders over the coming weeks as Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and Suez risk premiums refuse to come down.
