One of the busiest trade routes in the world is a difficult decision to transport shipping companies in factories, stores, car dealers and other companies.
If they want the ship to walk the Red Sea route, they will take the risk of being attacked by the Yemenhota armed forces and bear a large increase in insurance premiums.Or, they can bypass more than 6,400 kilometers in Africa. No matter which direction goes, it will increase the range of 10 days to consume more fuel.
Both options are not ideal, and they increase the cost -analysts said that these costs may ultimately be transferred by consumers by increasing the price of goods.
"We began to see that the global supply chain is being regarded as a weapon," said Malco Fukorien, the director of the Institute of International Trade, which supports British companies to expand exports and the Institute of International Trade.
In recent months, the global supply chain has finally recovered its vitality after three years of disturbance, which causes the cause of disturbances. In addition to the epidemic, there is even a brief blockage of the Suez Canal.%Of global trade.The significant decline in shipping costs has also been solved by long -term delay that plagued US and European retailers.
So far, the problem of the Red Sea has not seriously disrupted the global supply chain as the epidemic."But the situation is developing in that direction," Fogyon said.
Although the US -led troops assembled in the Red Sea to prevent the Chacer's armed attack, the attack continued.
Some companies including IKEA and British retailers Next have stated that they will avoid the Suez Canal bypass Africa, which may postpone the time when the product arrives.
How to cope with the annual export surge in the container shipping industry will be a key issue, which usually occurs several weeks before the Chinese factory's suspension during the Spring Festival in February.
Different types of ships are facing difficulties.The tanker was hardly affected, and he continued to use the Red Sea Channel because the Houthi armed forces seemed to have no interest in them.
Daniel Nash, director of the car transportation industry of London Shipping Data Company, said that in contrast, there were only 42 ship transport vessels in the Red Sea last month, which was more than half compared to December 2022.There is currently only one of the Red Sea routes this year.
The first ship that has been attacked by Hussean in recent weeks is the "Galaxy Leader" car transport ship. It was hijacked when it returned to Asia on November 19 to load thousands of cars.25 crew members (mainly the Philippines) have also been abducted, and it seems that it has not yet been released.
car transport ships from Asia to Europe have been sailing around Africa for a long time, which is currently particularly destructive for the global automotive industry.Chinese auto manufacturers have been rapidly increasing exports to Europe, especially electric vehicles.Even before the Red Sea crisis, the daily rent of the cross -ocean car transport ship soared from $ 16,000 to $ 105,000 two years ago.
Before the Red Sea shipping was interrupted, the Panama Canal decreased in water level due to drought, which reduced the number of passers to pass.This forced many vessels to choose a longer route to the United States through the Suez Canal.
The websites tracked by shipping show that there are still a large number of ships on the Red Sea connecting the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.But the largest shipping companies have greatly reduced or completely stopped activities in the Red Sea.
mid -December last year, MSC, the world's largest container shipping company, said that it would avoid the Red Sea route.Maski, the second largest shipping company, suspended the Red Sea route at the time and returned to the area by the end of December. After the ship's "Maski Hangzhou" was attacked, the company suspended the route again this week.
French Shipping Corporation Dafei Group stated in the statement that some of its ships have passed the Red Sea and plans to gradually increase the routes that cross the Suez Canal."Our company is closely paying close attention to the progress of the situation and is ready to quickly evaluate and adjust our plans as required," the statement also said.
There is far from the Chinese shipping giant to respond to the request of comment.A spokesman for Herbelot, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany and more than 250 container ships, said the company plans to bypass Africa by January 9 and then evaluate the situation.
A analysis provided by the Logistics Technology Company Fei Xiebo shows that as of Thursday, 389 container ships (more than one -fifth of the global container capacity) have been diverted to avoid the Suez Canal.
"This involves risk assessment, and protecting life, property and goods," said Nathan Stron Director of the Flying Association Bohai Transport."If you can avoid the situation of life -threatening, you should do this."
Suez Canal's shipping interruption is very rare.However, after the war in 1967, the International Shipping of the Suez Canal had closed for eight years.At that time, Egyptian President Mohammed Anwar Sadat said that the re -opening of the canal was "the happiest day in my life".
Some container ships still using the Red Sea route may be driving to or ports from the region, such as Saudi Arabia.For economic reasons, some small container ships also continue to travel between Eurasia through the Red Sea.
The ships that carry a large amount of container afford the additional costs around Africa, but Strang said that the longer range may cause the blood of ships with 5,000 or less containers.
The fastest route from China to East Coast port is the Panama Canal.However, the shipping company of the canal must be detoured now because of drought and consumes a longer time.Fei Xie Bo calculated that it would take about 10 days to take a good look than the Panama Canal, which means more than 40%more.
The CEO of the digital freight platform FreightOS, Zewei Schi La, said that the cost of transporting a container from China to the East Coast of the United States has soared from $ 2,300 before the Red Sea attack to about $ 3,900.When the shipping congestion during the epidemic is the worst, this number may exceed $ 20,000.
Fuji O'n, director of the Export and Trade Association, said that insurance premiums usually do not exceed 0.2%of the ship's freight value of the ship, but the insurance premiums have soared to 0.7%for ships that want to walk through the Red Sea."This is a very significant increase," he said.
Shi Laber said that he expects that shipping companies can cope with the current interruption, because they have purchased more ships in recent years and have enough idle capacity to solve the problem of shipping time.
"Although the impact of this incident is huge, and the ultimate impact may be greater," he said. "But the entire transportation network is overcome difficulties."
Christian Rolovs, co -CEO of Ai Shijie, an online container logistics platform, said in an email that compared with China's epidemic blockade measures, the supply chain interference of Chinese routes seems to be "relatively light".Essence
Siyi zhao contributed to this article by research.
Peter Eavis is responsible for reporting companies in business, financial markets, economy and various industries.Click to view more information about him.
Keith Bradsher is the president of the New York Times Beijing Branch. He had previously served as the president of the Shanghai Branch, the president of the Hong Kong Branch, the president of the Detroit Branch, and a Washington reporter.He reported in China during the new crown epidemic.Click to view more information about him.
