A port that used to keep half the world's ships fueled just lost half its business in six months.
Fujairah.
UAE's bunkering giant, sitting right at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.
The place tankers stop to refuel before the long haul.
Not anymore.
Bunker fuel sales there just crashed 55% in the first half of 2026.
From roughly 3.6 million tons last year… to 1.63 million tons now.
June alone hit a fresh low of 86,000 tons.
That's not a dip. That's a collapse.
Because the war got there first.
The U.S.-Iran conflict erupted at the end of February, right on Fujairah's doorstep.
Iran called the Strait "closed."
Mines went in the water. Ships got boarded. Infrastructure got hit.
Fujairah runs on cargoes from Iran and Russia passing through that exact chokepoint.
When the Strait shuts, so does the port's supply line.
While Fujairah bled, Zhoushan in China kept climbing.
It's now closing in on Fujairah's old crown as the world's third-largest bunkering hub, behind only Singapore and Rotterdam.
No war on its doorstep.
No chokepoint drama.
Just steady volume, month after month.
Sometimes you don't win a race. You just keep running while everyone else stops.
A brief U.S.-Iran ceasefire in early July let some fuel flow back in.
Inventories at Fujairah bounced to 7.3 million barrels, the highest since March.
Then hostilities resumed.
Stockpiles are already easing again.
Fujairah isn't just fighting a bad quarter.
It's fighting geography.
And geography doesn't negotiate ceasefires.
That's all for now!
