SABIC trucks 25,000 tonnes of urea overland from Jubail to Yanbu — 1,250 truckloads to bypass Hormuz closure
Saudi Arabian petrochemical and fertilizer giant SABIC has loaded a handysize urea vessel at the Red Sea port of Yanbu after trucking approximately 25,000 tonnes of granular urea across the Arabian Peninsula from its production hub in Jubail — a logistics operation requiring around 1,250 loaded trucks to move each cargo overland and bypass the effectively closed Strait of Hormuz.
The cargo, carried aboard the 30,000 DWT Marshall Islands-flagged vessel Courtesy K, was destined for Bangladesh under SABIC’s long-term government-to-government supply contract, according to Argus Media. A second urea cargo from Yanbu for Bangladesh is already scheduled to load later in May, using the same overland routing.
The operation mirrors a strategy pioneered by fellow Saudi producer Maaden in March, when it trucked phosphate from its Ras Al-Khair mining complex to Yanbu for export in the weeks immediately following the Hormuz disruption. SABIC has been continuously producing urea at Jubail since the conflict began on February 28, with Argus tracking at least 15 Saudi urea-laden vessels in the Gulf still waiting to exit — a backlog that limits storage availability at production sites and has already raised the risk of forced curtailments if the Strait remains closed.
The overland route adds significant cost and complexity. Each 20-tonne truck carries one load across a 1,200-kilometer route to Yanbu — the same corridor used by the Saudi East-West oil pipeline that is now running at its maximum capacity of 7 million barrels per day. Shipping a standard 20-foot container on the Shanghai-Gulf route has surged from $980 before the conflict to $4,100 by mid-May, according to Clarksons Research, as the land-bridge becomes the dominant workaround for the entire Gulf’s industrial export complex.
Watch: whether Saudi producers can sustain full output rates given the storage constraint represented by 15+ urea-loaded vessels trapped in the Gulf — or whether production curtailments become unavoidable if the Strait remains closed.
Source: Argus Media
Key Facts About SABIC’s Yanbu Urea Logistics
Sabic produces urea at the Jubail Industrial City on Saudi Arabia’s eastern Persian Gulf coast. Because vessels loaded there cannot currently exit through the Strait of Hormuz, the urea is loaded onto 20-tonne trucks — roughly 1,250 of them per cargo — and driven approximately 1,200 kilometers across the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, where it is loaded onto bulk carriers for export. The same cross-peninsula route carries the Saudi East-West oil pipeline, which Aramco confirmed is now running at its maximum capacity of 7 million barrels per day.
Bangladesh has a long-term government-to-government urea supply agreement with Saudi Arabia, under which Sabic supplies granular urea for Bangladesh’s agricultural sector. The country imports virtually all of its urea, making it highly exposed to Gulf supply disruptions. The Courtesy K cargo, and the subsequent Yanbu loading, represent Sabic’s effort to honour its G2G contract commitments while production sites remain active but unable to ship through the Strait.
Yes. Maaden, Saudi Arabia’s state mining company and the world’s third-largest DAP producer, trucked phosphate fertilizer from its Ras Al-Khair industrial complex to Yanbu in March 2026 — the same week the Hormuz disruption began in earnest. The Ras Al-Khair to Yanbu distance is broadly comparable to Jubail to Yanbu, making the logistics footprint equally substantial. Maaden has not disclosed specific volumes or truck counts for its own operations.
Argus Media is tracking at least 15 SABIC urea-loaded vessels still anchored in the Gulf and unable to exit through the Strait. These ships are effectively floating storage. If the backlog grows and onshore storage fills, SABIC and other Gulf producers face the choice of curtailing production or continuing to accumulate unsold inventory. CRU senior analyst Pranshi Goyal noted in April that “the longer this situation lasts, the greater the risk that producers are forced to shut down because storage fills up and there is simply nowhere left to put the product.”
Beyond the overland trucking route, Saudi Arabia has expanded use of the Mawani-operated “Red Sea Express” cargo shipping service through Yanbu’s King Fahd Industrial Port — linking Yanbu to Egypt’s Ain Sokhna and Jordan’s Aqaba, and running in cooperation with Folk Maritime and SABIC. The route was formally launched in May to support non-oil Saudi exports and reduce dependence on Gulf-facing terminals at Ras Tanura and Ju’aymah, both of which remain within range of Iranian ballistic missiles.
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