Oman Vision 2040: More Than 11,000 Ships and Four Million Containers in Eight Months

Few of the aims of Oman Vision 2040 are as old as the country itself. For centuries Omani merchants and sailors carried frankincense, dates and horses across the Indian Ocean, and the sultanate's long coastline, facing the open sea rather than the narrow waters of the Gulf, has always been its window on the world. The national plan sets out to make that coastline once again one of the great logistics platforms of the region, and on Saturday, November 14, 2026, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology published figures that show how far that ambition has advanced.

In the first eight months of 2026, more than 11,000 vessels called at Omani ports, an increase of 27.9 percent on the 8,793 calls of the same period in 2025. The ports handled more than four million standard containers, up 20.5 percent from 3.36 million, and about 146 million tonnes of goods, up 62.3 percent from some 90.5 million tonnes.

Speaking to the Oman News Agency, Laila bint Ali Al Batashi, Director of the Department of Ports and Marine Piers at the ministry, attributed the rise in container traffic to growing commercial activity and to more efficient port operations. The remarkable increase in vehicles handled, nearly three times the figure of a year earlier, points to the growing role of Omani ports as a gateway for trade with the wider region.

Oman's principal ports, Sohar in the north, Duqm on the central coast and Salalah in the south, each sit beside an economic zone, and the government has invested steadily in the roads, free zones and industrial estates around them. The figures published on Saturday suggest that this patient investment is now bearing fruit, and that Oman is taking its place among the leading Middle East ports alongside the great harbors of the UAE.