With westbound Hormuz routes rendered near-unusable by conflict, shipping services through alternative corridors have surged from 127 to 257 — and fertiliser supply chains are now moving overland through Saudi Arabia
India’s maritime and logistics machinery is being tested like rarely before. As the ongoing conflict in West Asia has made vessel movements through the Strait of Hormuz increasingly precarious, the country’s shipping sector has pivoted sharply to alternative routes — with government data showing that shipping services operating east of the Strait and through the Red Sea more than doubled from 127 in February 2026 to 257 in April, before easing marginally to 245 in May.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways confirmed the data, noting that services operating west of Hormuz — which until recently were a critical artery for India’s trade with the Gulf and beyond — have now become negligible due to conflict-driven risk. The reversal is stark: India, which has historically depended heavily on Hormuz passage for its energy imports and Gulf trade, is now constructing an entirely new logistics architecture on the fly.
The impact on India’s fertiliser supply chain has been particularly acute. A senior official from the Department of Fertilisers confirmed that fertiliser cargo stranded at facilities west of Hormuz, including at ports and production sites along the Persian Gulf, is now being evacuated via a novel multimodal route. Under this arrangement, cargo is moved by road from Gulf-facing ports to Yanbu Port on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, from where it is shipped to Indian ports. The route adds cost and transit time but ensures that India’s agricultural supply chain, which is critically dependent on imported fertilisers, does not run dry.
The disruption is also feeding into domestic inflation. Ratings agency CRISIL has warned that rising fuel prices — already up ₹7.50 per litre at the retail pump since May 15, could push cumulative increases towards ₹10 per litre if crude prices remain elevated. Higher fuel costs ripple into transportation expenses, manufacturing costs, and ultimately consumer prices, posing a risk to India’s broader inflation management goals.
India’s response to the Hormuz crisis is being closely watched by global supply chain analysts as a test case for how a large, trade-dependent economy navigates a simultaneous disruption to two critical maritime chokepoints, the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz. The ingenuity of the Yanbu workaround is admired, but the long-term costs and strategic vulnerabilities it exposes are shaping urgent policy conversations in New Delhi.
