Two Tankers Hit in Damietta: Disruption of the Maritime Hub
In the afternoon of August 2, 0026, two liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker ships anchored in the Egyptian port of Damietta were struck by Houthi drones. The damage temporarily disrupted the flow of Saudi oil to Europe and Asia, forcing Riyadh to reorganize export routes in real time. The disruption triggered emergency protocols for reconfiguration of transit routes, accelerating a process that had been underway for over six months.
Operationally, each ship hit was carrying approximately 140,000 cubic meters of LNG — equivalent to 56 million kWh of electricity — with a production capacity capable of meeting the daily consumption of over one million European families for two days. The incident caused an immediate shift of approximately 1.2 million barrels per day to alternative routes, including the trans-Eurasian land route.
The Eurasia Railway Corridor: A Technological and Logistics Hub
The Eurasia railway corridor, with a total length of 7,900 km between Khorgos (China) and Mombasa (Kenya), functions as a high-density freight flow system. The central hub is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where the rail gauge conversion takes place from 1,520 mm (Soviet standard) to 1,435 mm (international), a process that takes an average of 6 hours for each train carrying 80 containers.
The current operational capacity is estimated at 1.7 million TEU per year, with limited availability of critical spare parts in only three logistics centers: Tashkent, Almaty, and Dushanbe. The average cost for rail gauge conversion is $320 per container, while the repair time for tracks damaged by attacks or landslides can take up to 180 days in case of complex interventions.
Who Pays and Who Benefits: The Map of Logistic Risk
The costs of the alternative route were primarily borne by Chinese operators based in Shanghai, including Sinotrans Logistics and COSCO International. The company recorded a 41% increase in operating expenses in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the same period of the previous year.
Conversely, the benefits were concentrated in Kenya, where the port of Mombasa saw a 37% increase in container traffic, with an additional $48 million in imported goods. According to the annual report of the African Ports Development Agency, this increase is attributed to the strengthening of the railway network and the introduction of new low-emission terminals.
The Emerging Transformation: Structural Limitation of the System
The expansion of the corridor is not just an infrastructure project, but a strategic response to the Red Sea blockage. Data shows that the average delay in logistics releases for maritime routes from the Persian Gulf to Europe exceeded 180 days during July-August 2026, a historical record.
The structural limitation is not technological, but geopolitical: the dependence on transit systems in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, both countries with stable regimes but exposed to external pressures. The critical data point is that the entire corridor can be interrupted for at least 24 hours by blocking a single strategic railway node.
Decision Maker Alert
If you are evaluating investments in trans-continental logistics infrastructure, the critical data point is the dependence on three main nodes (Tashkent, Almaty, Dushanbe) for every 7,900 km of route. Monitor monthly railway traffic levels: if they fall below 125,000 TEU/month, the system enters a critical zone.
Photo by Andy Li on Unsplash
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