Red Sea crisis raises global shipping costs 141%
(VOVWORLD) - Attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea—a vital corridor for nearly a third of global container traffic—have severely disrupted regional and global maritime operations, the World Bank said in a report entitled “The Deepening Red Sea Shipping Crisis: Impacts and Outlook.”
By the end of 2024, a year after the Middle East crisis began, vessel traffic through the Suez Canal and Bab El-Mandeb Strait—which used to carry 30% of world container traffic—had plummeted 75%, as ships detoured around the Cape of Good Hope.
This has caused global shipping costs to increase 141%.
The report said travel distances for cargo ships that previously passed through the Red Sea had risen by 48% – and 38% for tankers. That resulted in increases in travel times of 45% for cargo ships and 28% for tankers.