Some shipping industry professionals eye leaving Dubai for Greece

Some shipping industry professionals eye leaving Dubai for Greece Submitted by Sean Mathews on Wed, 05/20/2026 - 19:19 Western expats reassess their commitments to the city-state due to the US-Israeli war on Iran A man stands holding a smartphone in front of the Dubai skyline, with the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, seen from Creek Harbour, on 3 April 2026 (Fadel Senna/AFP) Off Some shipping industry workers based in Dubai are looking to relocate from the UAE as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran , one ship owner and two industry sources familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye. Western expats working in the maritime industry are eyeing the Greek capital, Athens, and Cyprus as potential alternatives to Dubai, given those countries’ dominant positions in shipping and the favourable tax policies they offer the industry, the sources said. The search for alternatives to Dubai underscores how some expats, particularly westerners with easy access to Europe, do not expect the Gulf to return to its pre-war position anytime soon. Around 2,000 vessels are trapped in the Gulf as a result of competing US and Iranian blockades of the waterway. But the shipping industry is experiencing a boom as a result of the war. The lockdown of vessels has compressed supply, and rates are soaring as energy corridors are rewired.  US oil and gas exports have hit record highs as a result of the war. But the transit time from the US Gulf coast to Asia is substantially longer than the journey from the Arabian Gulf.  Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF, which tracks the price of crude oil tanker rates, is up 240 percent since the war on Iran started.  The industry's good fo...

Original source: Middle East Eye