🔻HSBC: The Strait of Hormuz could become “idle” within five years

George Elhederi, CEO of the HSBC banking group, said that the Strait of Hormuz will become “surplus and idle” in the next five years due to strategic investments made for alternative routes.

In comments to Reuters on Tuesday, Elhederi said: “We believe that this area can improve and then continue to grow. This requires a lot of investment.”

“Of course, we hope and expect that we will see a resolution to this conflict... but perhaps within the next five years the Strait of Hormuz will become idle.”

The U.S.-Israel war with Iran has highlighted the world’s heavy dependence on this strategic waterway, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes.

This situation is pushing Gulf-bordering countries to direct their resources toward developing energy-transfer pipelines to ports, and, according to Elhederi, will allow the region to withstand the consequences of the war.

HSBC said yesterday, citing data from Mid, the construction market information platform based in Dubai, that in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, separate projects worth $872 billion have been announced, part of infrastructure projects worth $1.4 trillion. Based on this report, planning has been done for this investment, but allocations have not yet been made.

Meanwhile, HSBC’s recent review of executives from more than 1,600 businesses and around 820 investors showed that they still consider the Gulf region to be attractive for investment.

Last week, the World Bank, after a 3.3% growth in 2025, predicted that the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan will face an economic contraction of 1.3% this year due to the war, but that a significant yet uneven recovery is expected to occur in 2027.

Elhederi was among those expected to attend the Saudi Arabia investment conference that was scheduled to be held next week, but according to people familiar with the matter, the in-person event was “canceled” due to Houthi attacks.