A ship is born once. Oman can serve it for life

Oman was building ships long before it exported a barrel of oil. The shipwrights of Sur turned out ocean-going baghlahs and ghanjahs for trade across the Indian Ocean. At its height, Oman's maritime empire stretched from Muscat to Zanzibar and the East African coast, and in 1840 the Sultan's ship Al-Sultanah sailed into New York carrying the first Arab envoy to the United States. The sea made Oman's fortune, and Omani hands built many of the ships that carried it.
Today, nine in every ten new ships come from yards in China, South Korea and Japan, and for the next two decades Oman need not compete with them: very large vessels demand engineering depth and supply chains that take a generation to build. But a ship is born only once. Over a working life of about 25 years it enters a drydock roughly ten times, is refitted for cleaner fuels and is finally broken up for its steel. Each of those moments is a purchase. Oman's opportunity is to serve the world's ships for life.
The demand is real. Ships carry more than 80 per cent of world merchandise trade, according to UNCTAD. Clarksons Research expects the tonnage reaching 25 years to rise from about 28 million deadweight tonnes in 2024 to roughly 100 million by 2035. The IMO's goal of net-zero emissions by around 2050 adds a steady stream of retrofit work.
Oman's advantage is geography and it cannot be copied. Its 3,165-kilometre coastline faces the open sea beside the main Asia–Europe and Asia–Africa shipping lanes, so a vessel can call at Al Duqm, Suhar or Salalah without a long detour. Traffic is growing: ship calls at Omani ports rose 9.5 per cent to 13,576 in 2025 and container throughput 21.6 per cent, according to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology. Deep-water ports, free zones and, from 2028, the region's first LNG bunkering hub at Sohar complete the infrastructure.
Repair is where Oman has already proved itself. Asyad Drydock in Al Duqm completed more than 230 vessels in each of 2024 and 2025 and dockings rose by more than 10 per cent in the first five months of this year. It has added a floating dock, specialist propeller repairs and robotic hull cleaning. Greek owners, among the most demanding in shipping, keep coming back. Every foreign ship repaired in Duqm is a service exported from Oman, and a satisfied owner tends to return at the next survey.
Recycling is the next frontier. The IMO's Hong Kong Convention on safe and environmentally sound recycling entered into force in June 2025. Four countries hold more than 90 per cent of global recycling capacity, and in 2024 recycling fell to a historic low of 0.25 per cent of the fleet, according to UNCTAD, so a backlog is building. A planned green recycling facility in North Batinah is designed to dismantle more than 70 ships a year and supply about two million tonnes of low-carbon steel to local industry. Ships that once traded past Oman would become feedstock for Omani factories.
Shipbuilding belongs in the picture, at the right scale. Asyad Drydock and Svitzer will deliver Oman's first locally built tug to Oman LNG in the first half of 2027, with a 50 per cent local content target. Small craft are the sensible start because demand is already at home: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources data show 27,320 fibreglass fishing boats in 2024 and a coastal fleet that more than doubled in four years to 528 vessels. Built in series to proven designs, such vessels let a yard climb the learning curve one hull at a time.
The real prize is linking these activities into one cluster. Suhar can anchor the materials: its steelworks, with capacity of 2.4 million tonnes a year, and its aluminium smelter, producing more than 375,000 tonnes, can feed fabrication shops, with recycled ship steel adding a low-carbon source. Spare-parts stores and engine service centres beside the docks would cut waiting time for owners. Duqm can lead in heavy repair and small newbuilds, Suhar and Salalah in repair afloat and ship supply. Asyad Shipping's orders this year with Korea's Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, worth RO 269 million, open the door to cooperation on guarantee repairs, block fabrication and engineer exchanges. Türkiye, a leader in tugbuilding and ship recycling, has owners who already know Duqm.
The constraints are largely within our control. The first is people. Omanisation in transport and logistics reached 21.6 per cent in 2025, and the trades a yard needs most, such as certified welders and marine electricians, take years to develop. Training should sit beside the docks. The second is a clear demand signal, with In-Country Value rules giving SMEs, from ship chandlers to hull cleaners, a lasting place in the chain. The fit with Oman Vision 2040 is direct. Non-oil activities made up 72.1 per cent of GDP in 2025, according to NCSI, and the Eleventh Five-Year Development Plan (2026–2030) expects the private sector to create 50,000 jobs a year.
This is also a moment to think big. Geopolitical, economic and supply-chain shifts are redrawing the map of trade. Manufacturers are spreading production across more locations, Korean builders are seeking capacity beyond their crowded home yards, and shipowners increasingly prize ports and yards that are reliable, neutral and easy to reach. Shifts like these reward countries that prepare before the opening arrives. Oman offers stability, open-sea access and a long reputation as a trusted partner to all. With yards, skills and rules ready, today's repair and recycling base can grow, within a generation, into a builder of mid-sized ships.
The world's largest ships will be born in East Asia for some time yet. Oman's opportunity is to keep them working for a quarter of a century, retire them responsibly and, step by step, rediscover the craft its shipwrights never lost. A ship is born once. Oman can serve it for life.