Iran War Shipping Disruption: What It Means for Vehicle Imports

Salalah Port Closure, Stranded Containers, and What It Means for Global Vehicle Shipping

On March 5, 2026, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen published an 18-post thread on X outlining how the ongoing conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran is creating shipping disruptions that extend far beyond the Persian Gulf. The thread, which has been viewed over 90,000 times, offers one of the clearest real-time explanations of how a regional military conflict translates into global logistics chaos—including containers being stranded at random ports, demurrage charges accruing at approximately $150 per day, and major carriers declaring "end of voyage" on ships that never reached their intended destinations.

For anyone shipping vehicles internationally—including car importers and exporters who rely on the same container networks and ocean carriers—the situation is developing rapidly and warrants close attention.

What Happened: Salalah Port and the Persian Gulf Shutdown

The disruption stems from the joint US-Israeli military strikes on Iran that began on February 28, 2026. In retaliation, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world's daily oil supply transits—and resumed threats against commercial shipping. Salalah Port in Oman, a major transshipment hub that serves as the gateway for containers bound for Persian Gulf destinations like Jebel Ali in Dubai, was struck by Iranian drone attacks and is now officially closed.

As Petersen explained in his thread, Flexport had only 12 containers either stuck in Salalah or en route to the port at the time of the closure, and all affected customers were being notified. But the ripple effects extend far beyond those 12 containers. Salalah is the 9th largest container port in the world and a critical node in the global shipping network. When a port of that size goes offline, the container routes that depend on it must be completely rerouted—and that rerouting creates cascading disruptions at ports thousands of miles away.

The "End of Voyage" Problem

The most alarming detail in Petersen's thread concerns MSC, the world's largest container shipping line. MSC has declared "end of voyage" on all ships bound for Persian Gulf ports, and reportedly on those bound for Salalah as well. In practical terms, this means MSC is dropping all containers destined for those ports at the next port of call—regardless of where that port happens to be in the world.

Petersen illustrated the point with a specific example: if you have a container on an MSC ship travelling from Buenos Aires to Jebel Ali, you may wake up to discover your container has been offloaded at a port you never planned for—Santos in Brazil, Tangier in Morocco, or somewhere else entirely. The container is now sitting in a foreign port, accruing storage charges, with no onward routing in place.

Maersk and MSC had already stopped accepting bookings to Gulf ports several days before Petersen's thread. Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM followed with similar suspensions. The situation is fluid: carriers are waiting for clarity on when and where they will resume accepting Gulf-bound cargo, and in the meantime, containers are piling up at interim ports with no clear path to their final destinations.

The Cost of Being Stranded

For shippers whose containers have been offloaded at unplanned ports, the financial exposure is immediate. Petersen outlined the charges that begin accruing the moment a container is dropped: demurrage (storage fees) of approximately $150 per day per container, with most ports offering only around 7 days of free storage before charges kick in. On top of that, an end-of-voyage charge of approximately $800 applies regardless of the circumstances.

To retrieve the container, the shipper has limited options: arrange local drayage trucking to move the container out of the port, hire a local logistics provider to handle customs clearance (assuming you have a legal entity in that country), find another ship going to the original destination (which may not be available if carriers have stopped Gulf bookings entirely), or clear the cargo through customs at the unplanned port and move it into a bonded warehouse or foreign trade zone.

Each of these options involves cost, complexity, and time—and none of them were part of the original shipping plan. As Petersen noted, working in logistics under these conditions is "pretty good job security" because the ability to navigate this kind of disruption on behalf of customers is "non-trivial" and creates genuine value for businesses that simply want to make and sell products without dealing with geopolitical chaos.

Why This Affects More Than Gulf-Bound Cargo

The critical insight from Petersen's thread is that the disruption is not confined to shipments headed for the Persian Gulf. When major carriers reroute vessels, suspend bookings, and offload containers at unplanned ports, the effects propagate across the entire global shipping network. Port congestion builds at alternative hubs. Equipment (empty containers) ends up in the wrong places. Vessel schedules across unrelated trade lanes are disrupted as ships are repositioned to deal with the crisis.

This is the same pattern that played out during the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea beginning in late 2023, which forced carriers to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope and added weeks to transit times on Europe-Asia routes. The Iran conflict has now compounded that disruption: Houthi-controlled Yemen announced on February 28 that it would resume attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, meaning carriers that had begun cautiously returning to Suez Canal transits are now reversing course again.

The combined effect is a shipping environment where both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea are effectively closed to most commercial traffic, forcing the majority of east-west container trade onto the longer Cape of Good Hope route. For vehicle shippers, this means potential delays, schedule uncertainty, and the possibility of rate adjustments on routes that share vessel capacity with affected trade lanes.

What This Means for Vehicle Importers and Exporters

West Coast Shipping's primary vehicle shipping corridors—from the United States to the UK, Europe, and other global destinations—do not transit the Strait of Hormuz or the Red Sea. US-to-UK container sailings from New York to Southampton, for example, follow a direct transatlantic route that is not in the conflict zone. However, no trade lane operates in isolation. When global carrier networks are disrupted, vessel availability, equipment supply, and port congestion can be affected across routes that are geographically distant from the conflict itself.

For customers shipping vehicles to or from Middle Eastern destinations—including the UAE, which is one of West Coast Shipping's active markets—the situation requires direct communication with your shipping provider to understand the current status of bookings, available routing alternatives, and any cost implications. Our team is monitoring the situation closely and is in contact with carrier partners regarding schedule updates and alternative port options.

Petersen's thread concluded with a broader observation that resonates across the logistics industry: technology helps identify which containers are affected and where they are, but "there's no substitute for elbow grease and passion for problem solving." Edge cases like a regional port closure caused by military conflict are where experienced logistics providers earn their value—not through algorithms, but through relationships, local knowledge, and the willingness to solve problems that no one planned for.

Questions About Your Shipment?

If you have a vehicle shipment in transit or are planning an international move, contact West Coast Shipping for the latest routing information and schedule updates. Use our car shipping calculator for current illustrative rates on your route.