Cargo handled at Oman’s ports rose 62.3% to about 146 million tonnes in the first eight months of 2026, up from about 90.5 million tonnes in the same period of 2025, according to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology.
The number of ships received by Omani ports and by marine piers outside the ports rose 27.9% to more than 11,000 by the end of August, compared with 8,793 a year earlier, Laila bint Ali Al-Batashi, director of the ministry’s Department of Ports and Marine Piers, told the Oman News Agency.
Container handling grew 20.5% to more than 4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). That compared with 3.37 million TEUs in the first eight months of 2025.
Vehicle handling posted the largest increase among the indicators. The number of vehicles handled at the ports rose 182.6% to 188,368, from 66,661 a year earlier.
Al-Batashi said the figures reflected growing operational activity at Omani ports. She said the growth strengthened the ports’ role as a hub for trade between Oman and regional and international markets.
The ministry did not give a breakdown of the figures by port.
The period covered includes months of disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Iran war began on February 28. Oman’s main commercial ports, including Sohar, Duqm and Salalah, lie outside the strait.
