Salalah Strike Forces India Trade Reroutes as New Delhi Delays Cabotage Rollback

A drone strike that temporarily shut the Port of Salalah in Oman has pushed the Middle East freight disruption into a new, more operationally specific phase: carriers are again rewriting India-subcontinent rotations, Pakistan calls are being restored on some strings, and New Delhi has delayed a planned rollback of cabotage relaxations just as Indian ports absorb rerouted Gulf-linked cargo. The result is a network problem, not just a security story.

Salalah had become one of the most important fallback nodes outside the Strait of Hormuz as carriers suspended or curtailed Gulf calls earlier in March. When the port was hit again on March 28 and operations were suspended, that fallback option suddenly narrowed, forcing carriers to improvise around western India, Pakistan and other relay points. Hapag-Lloyd said Salalah would only gradually resume operations from March 31, with some constraints likely to remain. Hapag-Lloyd Anadolu Agency

For cargo owners, that matters because Salalah is not a marginal stop. APM Terminals describes it as a major regional gateway and transshipment hub with direct relevance to the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and East Africa, and said a recent expansion lifted capacity from 4.5 million TEU to 6.5 million TEU. APM Terminals APM Terminals Salalah

Salalah’s closure removed a key workaround

The Port of Salalah had already been drawn deeper into the regional crisis earlier in March, when drone attacks damaged fuel storage and forced suspensions at parts of the port complex. Trade and shipping advisories described Salalah as one of the few major Omani nodes outside the Strait itself that could still support rerouting and contingency flows. S&P Global DHL Global Forwarding

That made the March 28 incident especially significant. Hapag-Lloyd said a “security incident” involving drone activity and explosions led the port to temporarily suspend operations; Maersk later said the affected area was limited but warned that operational constraints could persist even after the March 31 restart. Oman News Agency, cited by Anadolu, said two drones targeted the port, injuring one worker and causing limited crane damage. Hapag-Lloyd Anadolu Agency

The immediate consequence is not simply one delayed port call. Salalah sits on relay patterns that carriers use to connect India, Pakistan, the Gulf, East Africa and long-haul east-west services. When that node weakens, carriers lose one of the cleaner options for recovering schedule integrity, repositioning equipment and sorting Gulf-bound cargo that can no longer move normally through earlier routings.

Carriers are restoring Pakistan calls on India-linked services

The clearest sign of that shift is in carrier service notices. In its Week 13 Middle East operational update, Hapag-Lloyd said its India–America Express (TPI) service had already made or planned ad hoc calls at Muhammad Bin Qasim to discharge Pakistan imports while omitting Salalah calls on multiple voyages. Specifically, the carrier said Nagoya Express voyage 5252 made an ad hoc Port Qasim call on March 19 and would omit Salalah on March 28; Niledutch Lion voyage 6202 is set to call Port Qasim on April 9 and omit Salalah on April 11; and Stephanie C voyage 6203 is set to call Port Qasim on April 7 and omit Salalah on April 18. Hapag-Lloyd

That confirms the assignment editor’s core point: Port Qasim is not a hypothetical alternative, but an actively used substitution on a named India-linked service. Hapag-Lloyd’s update also shows the broader regional pattern. Its IG1 India-Arabian Gulf service remained suspended, while other strings were omitting Jebel Ali or adjusting terminal calls in India as the network absorbed disruption elsewhere. Hapag-Lloyd

Operationally, a restored Pakistan relay call does three things at once. It helps clear Pakistan import boxes that might otherwise wait for a compromised transshipment move via Salalah; it changes vessel sequencing on strings that also touch India; and it consumes schedule slack that carriers would otherwise use for recovery. That tends to raise roll risk for discretionary or lower-priority cargo and can create knock-on equipment imbalances at Indian load ports.

Why India delayed the cabotage rollback

India’s maritime regulator had been moving in the opposite direction before the latest escalation. On January 21, 2026, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways issued General Order No. 1 of 2026, revoking three 2018 orders that had allowed foreign-flag vessels to participate more freely in the coastal movement of EXIM transshipment containers, empty containers, agricultural and horticultural products, and fertilizers. The order said the revocation would take effect three months from issuance, which pointed to a late-April implementation timeline. Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways / DG Shipping PDF

That policy mattered because the 2018 relaxations gave foreign-flag carriers more room to reposition empties and move transshipment cargo along the Indian coast without being blocked by tighter cabotage restrictions. In a stable market, New Delhi’s rollback was intended to support Indian tonnage and reduce dependence on foreign lines. The January order explicitly argued that the earlier liberalization had not achieved key policy aims such as reducing dependence on foreign carriers or lowering freight costs. Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways / DG Shipping PDF

But the Middle East crisis has changed the timing. Multiple trade reports said the government delayed the rollback after pressure from carriers and amid concern that Indian ports were already handling rerouted or stranded Persian Gulf-linked containers. That decision is consistent with the operational logic now visible in carrier advisories: when Gulf relay patterns break down, Indian coastal flexibility becomes more valuable, not less.

Even before the Salalah incident, Indian trade groups and carriers were warning that cargo intended for Gulf discharge might have to be held offshore, discharged at alternative hubs such as Salalah, or returned to India if direct Gulf discharge was not possible. Business Standard reported on March 8 that about 45,000 Indian containers were stuck in the wider West Asia crisis and cited Container Shipping Lines Association executive director Sunil Vaswani saying cargo might be discharged at ports such as Salalah or sent back to India. Business Standard

Indian ports are becoming part of the workaround

That is the underappreciated part of this story. India is no longer just an origin-and-destination market feeling the effects of Gulf disruption. Its west coast ports are becoming part of the workaround architecture.

Hapag-Lloyd’s own network notices point to ongoing reliance on Nhava Sheva and Mundra within revised Middle East and Indian Subcontinent rotations, while also showing service-level adjustments between terminals in Nhava Sheva as carriers try to preserve operational continuity. Hapag-Lloyd

The likely implication is a heavier burden on western Indian gateways and coastal transshipment moves, especially for cargo that can no longer flow cleanly through Gulf hubs. That does not necessarily mean visible, port-wide congestion everywhere yet; the public evidence is still fragmentary. But it does mean more complexity in feeder planning, more dependence on coastal flexibility, and less certainty in how quickly boxes can be reconnected to their intended long-haul legs.

For industrial cargo, the problem is timing more than headline volume. Factory inputs, maintenance spares, machinery components and project shipments often move on booking patterns that assume predictable relay windows. When a transshipment hub closes, then partially reopens under constraints, the disruption shows up in missed connections, uneven equipment supply, and a growing need to prioritize cargo by urgency rather than original sailing plan.

DHL and other forwarders are warning about broader network strain

Large forwarders have been describing exactly that kind of secondary impact. In a March 2 customer advisory, DHL Global Forwarding said the Middle East escalation had already caused extended transit times, reduced network connectivity, capacity constraints on services that rely on Gulf transshipment or overflight routes, and new security-related surcharges. DHL said carriers were actively managing cargo acceptance policies, network rotations and alternative routings, while working on equipment reallocation and congestion recovery planning. DHL Global Forwarding

DHL also said war-risk surcharges had already been announced in the range of $1,500 to $4,000 depending on equipment type and size. Those cost pressures were visible before the latest Salalah disruption, but the closure of a key fallback hub increases the odds that such costs persist longer and spread across a wider set of India-linked routings. DHL Global Forwarding

What remains uncertain

Several points still need caution.

First, Salalah is reopening, not remaining fully shut. Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk both indicate a gradual return from March 31, with constraints still possible. That means the question is less whether Salalah exists as an option and more how much usable capacity and schedule reliability it can offer over the next several sailings. Hapag-Lloyd Anadolu Agency

Second, public carrier disclosures still offer only a partial picture of which loops beyond Hapag-Lloyd’s TPI are adding Pakistan calls or substituting Indian ports. The pattern is clear, but the full network map is still emerging.

Third, while the cabotage delay is widely described in trade reporting as a response to carrier pressure and crisis-driven rerouting, the public source document most clearly available today is still the original January 21 revocation order. That means the operational significance of the delay is easier to confirm than every element of the revised administrative timeline.

Why this follow-up matters

CAP Logistics readers should watch this as a transshipment-network story, not just a Middle East security headline. When a fallback hub like Salalah is disrupted, carriers start redistributing flows through India, Pakistan and other substitute nodes, and the consequences show up quickly in relay uncertainty, roll risk, equipment positioning and transit-time variability for industrial freight with tight delivery windows.

For background on the earlier stage of this crisis, see CAP’s prior coverage of the Strait of Hormuz disruption forces carrier suspensions and reroutes and carrier suspensions and surcharges across Gulf gateways.