James Wroe: How Ports Are Adapting to Geopolitical Disruption, Electrification and a New Era of Global Trade
Interview by Adam Halsey
Originally published by Adam Halsey. Republished by Shipping Arabia with permission from the interviewer and interviewee.
I spoke with James Wroe, Port Group COO at ASYAD Ports, the national port operator at the centre of Oman’s rapidly growing logistics and maritime sector. James oversees a portfolio spanning five operating ports, free zones and development projects that collectively handle roughly 40 million tonnes of bulk cargo and seven million TEUs of container traffic annually.
With more than two decades across Maersk, APM Terminals, port operations, investment, transformation and electrification, we discussed ASYAD’s growth ambitions, the rapid development of Duqm, automotive and EV logistics, electrification and automation, digital infrastructure, and the realities of operating critical trade infrastructure in one of the world’s most dynamic maritime regions.
Tell me about ASYAD Ports, your role as Port Group COO, and where Port of Duqm fits within the broader portfolio and Oman’s logistics strategy.
ASYAD is Oman’s national integrated logistics company with 4 divisions: a shipping company, a dry dock company, an express and logistics business, and then the Ports and Free Zones division, which is where I am.
We operate across seven different locations in Oman. In terms of ports, we are running five today, along with free zones and other industrial areas, and our plan is to grow from there. We have already announced a new terminal in Sohar with a large international shipping line, and we are also working to secure our first international projects.
Sohar is a large bulk port and free zone handling up to 75 millions tonnes of liquid and dry cargo annually. Salalah has a very large container terminal with capacity of approximately 6.5 million TEUs along with domestic bulk business. Port Sultan Qaboos is here in Muscat, and we also operate a smaller port in Suwaiq.
Duqm is the newest port in the portfolio. It has been developing for about a decade and has seen significant growth this year. It handles minerals and increasingly project cargo, including wind turbines, equipment for data centres and other heavy-lift cargo moving into the Gulf. It is also playing an important role in the green-energy transition for Oman and the wider region.
Across the portfolio, we handle around 40 million tonnes each of dry & liquid bulk commodities annually and approximately seven million TEUs of container traffic, with most of the container volume moving through Salalah. Port of Salalah also ranked third globally in the 2025 Container Port Performance Index, produced by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence.
You’ve spent more than two decades across Maersk, APM Terminals, port operations, investment, digital transformation and electrification. How has that experience shaped the way you look at what is happening in global shipping today?
It all comes together. My career has been about 50% on the port side and 50% on the shipping side. Even when we worked together in electrification, my role was focused on ports and logistics. Every role has touched some aspect of global trade and development, and more specifically global shipping.
Having worked across operations, commercial roles, transformation and electrification gives you a rounded view of the main drivers and strategic themes affecting customers, competitors and suppliers.
You can have a much more developed conversation with each partner. What are their needs? What are their drivers? What are they trying to achieve?
I have seen how an American port operator might attack a particular problem, how an Asian shipping line approaches it, how a regional carrier responds, or how a Nordic European trucking company deals with the same challenge. They are all trying to tackle operational excellence, control costs, motivate and train their workforce in tight labour markets, and manage the energy transition. They have simply chosen different approaches.
Having experienced different geographies and roles does not necessarily leave you with deep knowledge of one very narrow area, but it gives you that more rounded view. I have found that extremely useful.
Duqm appears to be entering a significant new phase of growth. What is changing most quickly there right now, and what do you think people outside the region may be underestimating?
Duqm has grown a lot this year. It was developed by the Omani state as part of a wider investment program for the region. There is the port, new shipping facilities, an oil refinery and a large economic zone intended to encourage industrial production.
That journey has been going on for more than a decade, and now you are starting to see the discussion move from planning into physical construction and implementation.
At the same time, as the national port operator, we also have a role in food security and making sure Oman and neighbouring countries continue receiving what they need. Then came the additional demand from customers looking to serve the GCC and finding their previous ports no longer available.
In 20 years in this industry, something is always happening. We have had the global financial crisis, the pandemic, wars, rebel attacks, piracy and strikes. You cannot plan on perfect conditions.
The important thing is to stay flexible. If something changes, you cannot spend endless time waiting for the final piece of information before making a decision. You need to stay close to the customer, understand what they need and be able to respond relatively quickly.
If you have already done the homework around your options, much of the thinking is complete when the event actually occurs.
When things go wrong, the people in the business are usually the experts in what they do. In many cases, you need to support them, give them freedom and get out of their way so they can make the right decision on the ground.
Ports have an additional challenge because we are dealing with fixed infrastructure. You cannot simply create another quay wall overnight. These are extremely expensive assets that take years to develop.
In the current disruption, Oman was effectively the country in the region that remained open, so a great deal of demand moved toward us. But there is a limit to what any port can absorb. You cannot build another port tomorrow. You can add equipment, communicate with customers, explain what can and cannot be done, and continue making decisions day by day.
What has this experience taught you about planning for low-probability risks?
If something is one of your top risks and the consequence could be that your business is unable to operate, you need to go through the exercise properly even if you think the probability is low.
How many businesses had a global pandemic on their risk assessment and genuinely believed it would happen? Cyberattacks are another good example. Until you go through one, you can question how seriously people really expected it.
There is a lot to learn from industries such as oil and gas, where resilience exercises and playbooks tend to be taken very seriously.
The only thing you can guarantee is that your plan will be wrong. It will not unfold exactly as you expected. So do not spend all of your energy trying to make it perfect.
If the preparation gets you 50%, 60% or 80% in the right direction when the event happens, you have used your time well.
Looking across global trade more broadly, what do you think businesses should understand about disruption?
I do not know that there is some unique additional insight beyond what we have already discussed, but people involved in global trade need to understand that disruption is always a risk.
Shipping lines have spent a lot of time over the last decade trying to create more reliable and stable products, but things will still go wrong. Today it may be our region. Tomorrow it could be somewhere else because of weather, labour disruption or technological failure.
These are not isolated events where one disruption happens and then everything becomes permanently stable again. Something else will eventually come.
Even businesses that consider themselves local are often surprised by how much they are affected by global trade flows.
For anybody directly involved in international trade or sourcing goods from different parts of the world, there is no substitute for understanding that things can and will change. Being responsive when they do is one of the most important capabilities you can have.
I’d like to thank James for taking the time to share his perspective. His experience across global shipping, port operations, electrification and transformation gives him a rare view of how ports can remain resilient while adapting to a rapidly changing trade environment.