Sharjah is pitching geography as an industrial advantage. Khorfakkan's container terminal faces the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hormuz, a location that has become more valuable as conflict and shipping disruption raise the cost of relying on one Gulf gateway. On 8 October, Sharjah FDI Office chief executive Mohamed Juma Al Musharrkh told the Economic Times that the emirate is targeting around $3 billion in investment from India across 2026 and 2027. That ambition sits alongside Gulftainer's previously announced $2 billion infrastructure programme to expand Khorfakkan and its inland logistics network. The investment target is not a tally of completed deals.
Capacity is expanding in stages, investment remains an ambition
Gulftainer's July plan envisaged raising Khorfakkan's annual container-handling capacity from 3.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units to 5 million initially, with longer-term ambitions exceeding 10 million. It also includes bonded inland facilities at Al Dhaid and Sajaa, intended together to provide around 2.3 million TEUs of annual logistics capacity. Al Musharrkh described strong interest from Indian manufacturers and logistics companies in land near the port. Sharjah's investment office had previously reported a February 2026 India roadshow and more than 100 Indian FDI projects valued at nearly $3 billion during 2025. Those historical figures and the 2026–27 target cover different periods and should not be added into a single new pipeline. Capacity describes a design limit, not containers actually moved.
The competitive asset is a port-to-factory chain
An east-coast port is only part of the solution for a company shipping into the UAE or onward to Saudi Arabia. Customs clearance, warehousing, inland haulage, insurance, industrial land and reliable onward transport determine whether the route works commercially. If those links are costly, avoiding a maritime chokepoint may simply move the bottleneck ashore. Khorfakkan's expansion could still change investment decisions by providing a route with different exposure to disruption than Jebel Ali. This is network diversification, not evidence that one port will replace another. Sharjah's opportunity is to turn temporary traffic diversion into long-term industrial demand without building permanent capacity on the assumption that crisis volumes will last forever.
Track leases, cargo and travel time
The next evidence should be signed factory and logistics leases, actual FDI inflows, monthly container throughput and inland transit times. Operators should disclose which phases are commissioned rather than planned and how much traffic is transshipment versus imports and exports entering the domestic economy. Investors should treat the $3 billion India figure as an official ambition expressed in an interview, not as booked capital. The port's location is a genuine asset. Whether it becomes a durable industrial advantage depends on operating performance, customer contracts and the cost of moving cargo beyond the quay.
How to use this analysis
Infrastructure develops through planning, consent, procurement, construction, commissioning and use. Proposed capacity should not be added to operating capacity, and throughput should not be confused with design limits. For a business user, local connection, reliability, price and service date are often more important than national totals. UAE evidence should state whether it covers the federation, one emirate, a free zone or a company group, because those boundaries are not interchangeable.
Source and verification note
The reporting base for this article is Economic Times: Sharjah FDI Office CEO interview, 8 October and Invest in Sharjah: India roadshow, February 2026 and Sharjah Ports Authority: port infrastructure and The National: Gulftainer expansion, July 2026. The link is provided to the source page or release so readers can check the reporting period, definitions and later revisions. Figures are not extended beyond the source's geographic or institutional scope, and forecasts remain labelled as expectations until an official release records the outcome.