Freight forwarding in Egypt

Sea freight covers FCL, LCL and consolidation into and out of the Egyptian seaports. Air freight runs through Cairo International, where advance cargo information has been mandatory since January 2026 and the ACID number must exist before the shipment is loaded. Road freight covers domestic Egyptian movement and the onward regional legs.

Project cargo and dangerous goods are handled as separate disciplines rather than as a heavier version of general cargo, because the documentation, the berth and the handling equipment are all different.

Alexandria carries broad liner coverage and handles a major share of general cargo. Port Said sits on the northern approach to the Suez Canal and absorbs transhipment volume most directly. Damietta is the container port that also serves the Syria lane. Ain Sokhna is the Red Sea gateway and the natural choice for Gulf and Asian routings.

Which one suits a consignment depends on the liner service, the cargo character and the inland destination. Discharging at the wrong port is rarely just a longer road leg.

An ACID number is registered on the Nafeza platform before departure, and the documents are transmitted from the origin country through CargoX. Sea shipments have worked this way since October 2021. Air shipments joined on 1 January 2026: every air consignment to Egypt now needs a valid ACID before it is loaded onto the aircraft.

The practical failure is almost always timing rather than substance. The filing is expected ahead of shipment, the commercial invoice has to follow the structured Nafeza template, and an ACID that does not exist when the goods are loaded cannot be repaired at the destination. Full detail is on the Egypt customs clearance page and in the ACID explainer.

The published lanes run in both directions: UAE to Egypt and Egypt to the UAE, Syria to Egypt and Egypt to Syria.

The Syria pairing is the one most forwarders in Egypt cannot service end to end. MIDTRANS pairs its Damascus office with licensed partners in Egypt, so a consignment discharging at Damietta and continuing to Latakia or Tartous stays with one operations desk instead of being handed to a second company at the Egyptian quay.

Midtrans Shipping And Services is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with further offices in Jebel Ali, Damascus, Tartous and Latakia and a partner office in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Egypt is a core market that we serve as a coordinating forwarder: routing, booking, documentation and corridor planning are handled by our own operations desk, while customs clearance and port handling inside Egypt are carried out by licensed Egyptian brokers and agents we appoint and supervise.

We do not operate a licensed customs brokerage of our own in Egypt, and we do not present partner capacity as our own. Our appointed broker attends the examination in person rather than sending papers to it, and our operations desk is on the call while it happens. Verification routes are on the Trust Center.