Yemen is a maritime nation par excellence. Although its surface area is less than 600,000 square kilometers (231,661 square miles), it has a 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile) coastline on its west and south dotted by dozens of coastal towns, the most famous being Aden in the south on the Arabian Sea (which is connected to the Indian Ocean) and Hodeidah in the west on the Red Sea. Yemen’s most important ports are based in these two towns.

In 2008, the Yemeni government announced that Aden will witness an economic surge with the signing of a contract with Dubai Ports World (DP World) to manage the Port of Aden. However, the economic surge never happened.

What happened was the opposite, as statistics about the port’s activity showed a dramatic decline in performance. The port received about 500,000 containers in 2007, the year before DP World started operating the port. That number gradually decreased until it reached 130,000 containers in 2011, then climbed to 212,000 containers in 2012. BIL Ship Management, a Singaporean company that worked at the port for 25 years as a transit line for ships needing to refuel, has stopped operating at the port. 

In September 2013, after strenuous negotiations between the Yemeni government and DP World, Aden port’s free zone returned under the Yemeni government’s management, after being managed by DP World for four years.