On Middle East Landbridge: “There is nothing that you will build that cannot be destroyed. If someone wants to prevent this from being solved, it’s easily done. There is only one solution. We have to live. Humanity has to learn to live with one another. You need peace.”
“The situation over the last two years has been one where the U.S. has done everything possible to destroy the trust the world had in the U.S. However, till now, no one else has won the world’s trust, so there’s a vacuum. I think it’s too late to go back to the status quo, or what existed, because too many things have been destroyed.”
“Whatever the disruptions that exist today, global supply chains require 30% more capacity than what is available. You can almost say there is a shortage of capacity today.”
In the investing world, a group of stocks called the “Magnificent Seven” heavily influences the broader stock market. In maritime, you also have a core group of companies with the same moniker. They are global terminal operators that collectively handle about 40% of the world’s container throughput. One of those companies is DP World.
In its latest quarterly report, the company reported a 13.1% revenue increase to $12.7 billion for the first half of 2026.
After a 20-year absence, DP World announced it has entered exclusive negotiations with the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas to develop and operate a container terminal.
The Dubai-based logistics giant agreed to sell its six U.S. port operations and assets, including stevedoring operations at 16 locations along the eastern and Gulf of Mexico coasts and a passenger terminal in New York City, to American International Group in 2006 to allay U.S. national security concerns.
DP World continues to diversify globally. The company and Kenya-based GulfCap Africa announced they have signed a Shareholders Agreement formalizing the joint venture behind the planned 222-hectare Mombasa Industrial Park Special Economic Zone.
Other business headlines were the $1.5 billion dual-tranche bond issuance, a major new ship-repair joint venture in India, and massive infrastructure expansions across Africa and Latin America.
This week I had a chance to sit down with Yuvraj Narayan, CEO of DP World, for an extensive interview.
The interview with Narayan was more like a fireside chat, like I do at my Chatham House Rule Symposium, Containers Don’t Lie.
Instead of cherry-picking quotes and writing a series of articles, I wanted to give you a breakdown of the topics and his thoughts from our interview.
DP World is a great example of how a company can look inward and find growth opportunities within its own ecosystem. Yes, they are expanding around the world, but the company’s power comes from interconnecting its existing portfolio of isolated assets.
Like threading a needle to connect pieces of fabric to make a quilt. DP World has been fortifying and strengthening its position by connecting these isolated assets. This tapestry of business creates the flexibility to pivot and capitalize on opportunities when trade lanes shift because of bottlenecks created by Mother Nature and geopolitics.
Here are the highlights.
Identifying Opportunity from Within
“The bedrock of DP World's strategy has two main fundamental things attached to it, which are: first, we want to be in markets which have growth, and second, we want to have those markets connected. And that's what we've been doing for the last 10 years. So we had a portfolio of assets, and each asset was a standalone business. We then realized a network of assets had much more value than isolated assets. We suddenly realized that we were leaving a lot of value on the table by not having our assets connected to each other, talking to each other, working off a common database, etc., etc., etc.”
“The more certainty I can offer to my clients, the better positioned I’ll be, on a relative basis, to get your goods to you with some degree of certainty, transparency, etc.”
Globalization and where it went wrong
“I think since the last five to seven years, we've been hearing stuff like deglobalization, and it was hugely advantageous to the world at large. But aspects of globalization went wrong, and they are manifesting today in the sort of geopolitics you are seeing globally.”
“Regardless of how developed a nation is, the one thing you observe today is that, whether you are developed, developing, or undeveloped, you are seeing a move to the extreme right, and the reason for that is very simple. It is the exclusion element of globalization. It was not inclusive enough.”
“From a DP World perspective, we do not believe in deglobalization. We just believe that you need to manage your risk of being overdependent on a single source of supply. You need to shorten the supply chain because the length of the supply chain in itself is a risk.”
“COVID revealed the sheer length of the supply chain and the overdependence on China as a single nation for procurement purposes. So when China shut down, the world realized it can’t happen again. You need to diversify your sources.”
“So, for procurement, you started seeing the move from China into Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, India, parts of Africa, Latin America. This was just de-risking.”
“You have to have nearshoring so that the supply chain becomes as short as possible. You already saw that happening with Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Latin America connectivity, etc., etc. The good thing about our strategy has always been diversification. So whether the supply chain moves from China to Vietnam to Thailand, to Malaysia, to Indonesia, to India, to parts of Africa, we are everywhere.”
Price impact of disruption
“The world works on a network. Networks are long-term commitments and investments made by the transportation industry. When networks get disrupted, it causes pain in both availability and pricing. That's the pain we are all seeing today, with the state of the Red Sea, having to go around the Cape.”
“CEOs of shipping lines have been consistently wrong in predicting rates. Over the last couple of years, they have said it would be bad because they have surplus capacity, and rates would come down crashing. They were wrong for one reason: disruption.”
“Whatever the disruptions that exist today, global supply chains require 30% more capacity than what is available. You can almost say there is a shortage of capacity today.”
Land Bridge expansion in the Middle East
“There is nothing that you will build that cannot be destroyed. If someone wants to prevent this from being solved, it's easily done. There is only one solution. We have to live. Humanity has to learn to live with one another. You need peace.”
“Let us assume there are so many passages, so many routes. Why do you need two routes? You know, I had a very interesting conversation with some world leaders the other day, and basically, what we have seen over the last couple of decades has been a system designed for just-in-time. It has completely changed now. Our thinking has to change. You have to plan for certainty. You have to plan for resilience.”
“We already have infrastructure in all these alternate places. Whether they are an alternate route or an alternate source of supply, we don’t necessarily have to start at the beginning. Whether we have enough capacity is questionable. The reason is time. It will take you a decade to create another Jebel Ali Port.”
Trump Global Trade War, Sanctions, Regime Change
“The U.S. will lose some degree of dominance. That time is up, but they will remain very relevant. So let nobody convince you that you know the United States is going to go away. No, but similarly, I must tell you, China is here to stay. The world should not make the mistake of not learning how to deal with China.”
“So in my view, what will the U.S. lose? Yes, the U.S. is still a very prosperous country. There are lots of positives. They were the biggest beneficiary of globalization, free trade, and free movement of money. But they have destroyed themselves.”
“For instance, the U.S. was the world's bank. We all kept our money in U.S. dollars. We all kept our money here. We all invested in U.S. companies. The day it became apparent that the U.S. now had the power and was willing to use it to take your money away, that changed.”
“The fact that the dollar was the sovereign reserve preference of every nation in the world-it was a privilege. That trust you don't break. And that trust is absolutely destroyed.”
“Trust that has been destroyed takes a long time to be built. Takes a moment to destroy it. It takes a long time to build. Absolutely will take decades.”
“The situation over the last two years has been one where the U.S. has done everything possible to destroy the trust the world had in the U.S. However, till now, no one else has won the world’s trust, so there's a vacuum. I think it's too late to go back to the status quo, or what existed, because too many things have been destroyed.”
“One of the things that used to keep this whole thing together was the post-World War II multilateral order, where the five permanent members of the Security Council made rules for the rest of the world, and they could break rules whenever they felt like it. And that’s what they did all the time. But there was one assumption- you would never disagree with each other. That’s what kept them effective.”
“Democracy is about people electing their leaders, and then suddenly you start seeing regime change. What we are going through today (tariffs, sanctions) is absolutely ridiculous, unacceptable, and reflects a lack of sensible leadership. It is ridiculous. What’s happening.”
Why Africa is part of the new tomorrow logistics and trade
“The key port areas in South Africa, Tanzania, and Mombasa, Kenya, don’t work. Vessels waited 42 days in Dar es Salaam before they got a berth. When we started operating that berth (in 2024), it dropped to four days in just six months. I can tell you, it’s nothing but straightforward, honest management.”
“There will be massive demand coming out of Africa. Today it is cheaper to get a product from China all the way to the coast of Africa. But to get that product 1,000 miles into Africa, it costs three times the amount of money. That therein lies the potential of Africa. The opportunity of connectivity.”
“Africa is huge. The thing is, though, we all tend to talk about Africa as if it's a country. It's 42 countries. The challenge today, to my mind, in Africa is: Do I have 40 country heads?”
“So the opportunity is huge. The supply chain has never been disrupted, and it needs to be. It's been inefficient. There are too many intermediaries, and there's massive scope for disintermediation. And now, with the kind of technology that we have access to. That's the way to go (to build out connectivity).”
“There are too many silos. They need to be eliminated, and it's happening. I can see it's happening. We started talking about this maybe seven, eight years ago. Today everybody is talking about it. CMA bought Delmas (from the Bolloré Group for €470 million in September 2025), and then MSC took Bolloré Africa Logistics assets. We were very happy, because now all the shipping is going to come to us.”
“Creating port capacity is hard, and you need to make sure that it's accessible to everybody among shipping lines. Obviously, they don't want their data to be compromised. They don't want their clients to be shared.”
India
“You’re 100% right when you say India can grow at 8% for the next 15 years. That is the potential of India. I once asked Mukesh Ambani (chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the largest public company in India) this question: “We operate in 80 countries, and you manufacture so much here. So why is India sensible to me? I understand this environment. I understand the language. I understand the way it works. So why should I start going to places I don't know and dumping my capital there, rather than opening this up? He looked at me, and he said, "Can you open up India for me? That’s how we did the joint venture with him on the Chennai Port.”
China’s port dominance
“It is unbelievable what China is doing. Their terminals today are more automated than any terminals you see anywhere in the world. 100% indigenous technology. They are totally self-reliant. They don't buy a screw from the U.S. That is the power of China. When China decides they need to build something, nothing stands in the way. China is different.”
“There is no sitting outside the environmental guy's office, then sitting outside other offices for permission to build. There's no comparison. What China built in 20 years with U.S. capital, compared to any other country, including the U.S., would take three times the amount of capital China spent. It would also take three times the amount of time to get to the same place (finish a port project).”
Slow Steaming, Climate and Green Energy
“When I started in the port industry in 1996, 97, ocean travel from the Far East to the U.S. East Coast used to take 23 days through the Suez Canal. Now it takes 51 days!”
“We are all seeing the impact of climate, so denying it is just fooling yourself. If you’re not a politician, you will not deny it. It’s there to see.”
“New vessels being built today can use mixed fuels, ammonia, and even nuclear. But ultimately, ammonia needs safety requirements to be a viable alternative. I personally feel that there is too much polarization. The world needs to come together. Climate is not a single-country issue; it’s a global issue, and it needs to be solved globally.”
“This is going to be a gradual process. It’s going to start with mixed fuel until you reach a more sustained level of alternative-fuel production. Vessels built today are built for 30 years. Once you overspec a vessel, society starts paying for it on day one.”
“This first problem is the world needs to deal with climate change. The second is you need to make the money available (to invest in alternative energies).”