Shipping from Egypt to Syria

Routing reality

A short sea leg with a long transhipment problem

Egypt and Syria face each other across the eastern Mediterranean, but very few container services call both coasts on the same rotation, so most boxes on this lane tranship. The sea distance is short and the routing is not.

A container loaded at Damietta or Alexandria is relayed at an eastern Mediterranean hub before it is delivered onto a feeder for Latakia or Tartous. That relay, rather than the sailing distance, is what sets the transit and what the schedule has to be read against. Cargo originating south of the Suez Canal at Ain Sokhna is repositioned by road to a Mediterranean gateway instead of sailing the long way round.

We name the relay on the booking. Sea freight on this corridor is quoted with the connection stated, not hidden inside a single transit figure.

Gateway pairing

Damietta, Alexandria and Port Said against Latakia and Tartous

The gateway pair is chosen from the cargo, not from the map. Damietta is the working loading port for Egyptian containers moving to the Syrian coast and it serves the eastern Delta industry. Alexandria and El Dekheila load the Cairo and western Delta traffic. Port Said East works as the relay at the Mediterranean mouth of the Suez Canal for boxes that transfer rather than sail through.

On the Syrian side, Latakia takes the containers and is the gateway for Aleppo and the north. Tartous works general cargo and breakbulk across its berths and gives the shorter road run to Homs and Damascus. Egyptian ceramics, marble blocks, steel and plant pieces that will not containerise discharge at Tartous, and project cargo is planned around that berth from the first enquiry.

Egyptian export side

Nafeza, the exporters' register and GOEIC control

The export half of this lane is Egyptian. The export declaration is lodged through the Nafeza single window by an exporter listed on the register kept by the General Organization for Export and Import Control, GOEIC, and it is tied to the export proceeds form raised with the exporter's bank.

The certificate of origin is issued and attested by the chamber of commerce of the exporter's governorate. Regulated commodities, meaning food, agricultural produce, textiles and listed manufactured goods, are inspected by GOEIC before loading, and fresh produce carries the phytosanitary certificate from the Central Administration of Plant Quarantine. We present the goods and take the examination at the point of stuffing.

Syrian import side

Legalisation, import approval and clearance at the discharge port

The import half is Syrian and it is documented differently. The importer's file needs the commercial invoice, the packing list matching the container marks, the certificate of origin, and the bill of lading naming the consignee exactly as registered. The certificate of origin and the invoice are legalised by the Syrian diplomatic mission in Egypt before the documents travel.

Where the commodity sits on a licensed or restricted list, the importer holds a prior import approval from the Syrian Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade, together with the bank record covering the transfer, before customs registers the declaration. Our Damascus office files the declaration at Latakia or Tartous, follows the examination, and moves the container inland under customs transit to Homs, Aleppo or the Damascus customs office. The procedure in full sits on our customs clearance in Syria page.

Overland

The land bridge through Aqaba and Nasib

A road route runs between the two countries and it removes the transhipment problem entirely. Trailers load in Egypt, cross to Jordan by the Red Sea ferry between Nuweiba and Aqaba, run north through Jordan, and enter Syria at the Nasib crossing on the Damascus highway.

We use the land bridge for consignments that have to arrive as one movement, for cargo the buyer wants delivered to the door rather than to a quay, and for part loads that would otherwise wait for a feeder connection. Trailer, ferry booking and both sets of border formalities are handled on one file by our land freight desk.

Cargo on this lane

What Egypt sends into Syria

The Egyptian traffic into Syria is construction and finishing materials, ceramics and sanitary ware, marble and granite, chemicals and cement additives in commercial packing, cables and electrical products, steel and engineering fabrication, processed food and food ingredients, packaging materials, and agricultural inputs. Reconstruction demand keeps the building-materials share heavy on this corridor.

Heavy and out-of-gauge pieces move as breakbulk to Tartous with the lift plan agreed before the vessel is fixed. Midtrans Shipping And Services books commercial and industrial consignments here: full containers, part loads, project cargo, industrial equipment, raw materials and manufactured goods. Each consignment travels against a commercial invoice and a registered Syrian consignee.