GFS expanded its standing capacity by nearly 31% over the past year, but the expanding conflict has taken its toll on the carrier owned 81% by AD Ports Group.

Two of its vessels, the 4,350 teu GSF Giselle and the 2,824 teu GFS Pride were reportedly damaged yesterday, with GFS Pride subsequently sinking while GFS Giselle suffered minor damage. All crew, from both vessels were reported safe.

The events in the Strait of Hormuz that have occurred since late February are an indication of the rapidly fluctuating fortunes currently being experienced at sea.

X-Press Feeders remains the world’s largest feeder operator by deployed capacity, although its fleet has contracted by 7.1% year-on-year, as per Alphaliner’s survey on 21 September. Fallout from the Middle East conflict forced X-Press to make service cuts across the region, which is the main reason for the decline,” commented Alphaliner.

A similar story can be seen with DP World’s operator, Shipping Solutions (SS), which reduced its capacity by 2.5%, but whereas X-press Feeders capacity was down nearly 14,000 teu to 182.776, SS capacity edged down to 147,807 teu.

While the GFS fleet, which until yesterday had 55 vessels, had ballooned 145,116 teu shrinking the gap to SS by more than 40,000 teu to just 2,700 teu.

SS operates 85 ships, reduced from 94 in 2025, but the average size of the ships has increased from 1,613 teu to 1,739 teu.

GFS Pride was the only vessel deployed on the company’s fortnightly KFK service operating a shuttle between Khalifa, Jebel Ali and Karachi in Pakistan. The route required the vessel to transit the Strait of Hormuz, where the Iranian National Guard Corps said it struck a mine.

According to Alphaliner the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent markets remain GFS’s core markets, “And accounted for the bulk of its growth”.

Some of that Middle East growth for GFS has been in the Red Sea, another flashpoint for the region, but one that has seen mainline operators returning to in a concerted move to return to the far shorter Suez route.

Both SS and X-Press have reduced their presence in the Arabian Gulf, with X-Press shifting capacity to the Latin American and European trades. The carrier has cut Middle East Indian Subcontinent services, re-deploying some 38,000 teu in the process.