Red Sea crisis reaches peak impact on container shipping

Container ship CMA CGM (Photo: Marcus Hand)
 

Among the leading container ship operators, only CMA CGM continues to transit Suez, with a service of 11 vessels, ranging from 9,000 to 11,000 TEU, all operated by CMA CGM with consortium partners Ocean Alliance, COSCO Shipping, OOCL and Evergreen participate in operating this service.

“Any further escalation of the Red Sea crisis would have a limited impact on the container markets as only 14% of the ships currently deployed on the Asia- Europe trade are using the Suez Canal,” Linerlytica said.
The analyst breaks down that in terms of total capacity, these vessels account for only 4% of the total 7.48 million TEU deployed on these services.

According to Linerlytica, only 72 of the 513 ships currently operating on the Asia-Europe trades are still using the Suez Canal and they are mainly small operators based in China, Russia, Singapore, Turkey and UAE.

The analyst said that rising tensions in the region, after Yemen attacked Tel Aviv with drones and Israel retaliated at Hodeidah, have not changed container ship operations in the Red Sea region.

All major carriers on the Asia-Europe trade have diverted their vessels past the Cape of Good Hope, with the exception of CMA CGM as they continue to operate 11 vessels for the Phoenician Express (BEX2) service on the Asia-Mediterranean route via the Suez/Red Sea route.

The Phoenician Express (BEX2) service calls at ports in China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and transits the Suez Canal to call at Adriatic ports in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia as well as Lebanon, Egypt and the UAE.

The decline in the number of container ships transiting the Suez, along with ships from all major sectors, bulk carriers, oil tankers and gas tankers, has had a major impact on the Suez Canal Authority (SCA)’s revenue.

Last week, SCA reported a $2.2 billion drop in revenue for the fiscal year ending April 2024, compared with $9.4 billion in revenue the year before.

According to SCA head Osama Rabie, the number of ships transiting the canal in 2023/2024 fell to 20,148, compared with 25,911 the previous year.

The Suez Canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, and authorities have tried to increase its revenue in recent years, including an expansion in 2015, Reuters reported.

However, that source of income is unlikely to recover in the near future as the conflict in Gaza threatens to spread to Lebanon and Yemen as regional groups supporting the Palestinians are increasingly active.

 

Source: Phaata.com (via Seatrade-Martime)

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