Impact Of Red Sea Crisis On Container Ships Reaches Its Peak

According to analyst Linerlytica, almost all services on the world's top ten container shipping routes have been rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope and will not be greatly affected by the escalation of Houthi attacks.
Among the leading container ship operators, only CMA CGM continues to pass through the Suez Canal, with a total of 11 ships with a capacity of between 9,000 and 11,000 TEUs on its route services, all operated by CMA CGM, with Ocean Alliance partners COSCO, OOCL and Evergreen also occupying slots on the route.
"A further escalation of the Red Sea crisis would have limited impact on the container market, as only 14% of the ships currently deployed on the Asia-Europe trade use the Suez Canal," Linerlytica said.
In terms of overall capacity, these ships account for only 4% of the total capacity of 7.48 million TEU deployed on these routes, the analysts believe.
According to Linerlytica, of the 513 ships currently operating on the Asia-Europe trade route, only 72 still use the Suez Canal, and these are mainly small operators in China, Russia, Singapore, Turkey and the UAE.
Analysts say that the heightened tensions in the region following the Yemeni drone attack on Tel Aviv and Israel's retaliation in Hodeidah have not changed container ship traffic in the Red Sea region.
All major carriers on the Asia-Europe trade have rerouted their ships to the Cape of Good Hope route, with the exception of CMA CGM, which still operates 11 ships on its Asia-Mediterranean Phoenicia Express (BEX2) service via the Suez/Red Sea route.
The Phoenicia Express (BEX2) route calls at ports in China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and via the Suez Canal at Adriatic ports in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and Lebanon, Egypt and the UAE.
The decline in the number of container ships transiting the Suez Canal, as well as bulk carriers, tankers and gas carriers on the main routes, has had a significant impact on the revenues of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).
Last week, the SCA reported a $2.2 billion drop in revenues for the fiscal year ending April 2024, compared with $9.4 billion in the previous year.
Osama Rabie, director of the Sudan Canal Authority, said the number of ships passing through the canal will fall to 20,148 in 2023/2024 from 25,911 the previous year.