More than 100 ships changed course

However, this route change, which took place right on New Year’s Eve, delayed the delivery of the products and, on the other hand, caused an increase in oil and freight prices.

The Guardian newspaper wrote that more than 100 container ships abandoned the Red Sea route and started shipping to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope due to the “deteriorating security situation”. While this route causes an additional 6 thousand nautical miles to be added to the normal route of container ships, it also brings about a delay of 3 to 4 weeks in the delivery of the cargo it carries. Kuehne and Nagel, a container transportation company, announced that 103 container ships have changed their Red Sea route so far.

Oil also increased

Pointing out that 19,000 commercial ships follow the Red Sea route annually, Kuehne and Nagel manager Michael Aldwell said, “In other words, 12 percent of world trade passes through the Suez Canal. The route change will result in a 20 percent decrease in global shipping capacity. There will also be a significant delay in deliveries. There is also a return to this. “The development in sending empty containers back to Asia will further affect the supply chain,” he said.

The abandonment of the Suez Canal route also affected freight and oil prices. The barrel price of brand oil, which was around 74 dollars last week, rose above 80 dollars with the news of the ships’ route change. It was stated that the increase in freight prices started to accelerate. Meanwhile, Asian manufacturers immediately started to take positions for the new situation. Many companies have started to use the expression “just-in-case” (just in case) instead of “just-in-time”, which they use for their supply chains.