Container shipping hit by Suez and Panama diversions

Date Added: 18 December 2023

Container shipping hit by Suez and Panama diversions

With our comprehensive portfolio of international container shipping services, Davies Turner is ever mindful of the effects that Panama Canal draught restrictions on one side of the world and Yemen-based Houthi rebels attacking shipping transiting the Red Sea enroute to the Suez Canal on the other side, are having on container shipping schedules,

Media reports and shipping line advisories indicate that diversions of carrier proforma loops are being scaled up as more services avoid the two waterways.

With no sign of restrictions easing in the Panama Canal and no end to the Israel-Hamas war in sight, more sailings are likely to divert to the Cape of Good Hope route in the coming weeks, from both the transpacific and Asia-Europe trade lanes

Based on eeSea data, the Loadstar magazine reported this week that there are 43 container vessels set to divert from the Panama Canal in the next few weeks, nine of these confirmed as heading past the Cape instead of transiting the Suez Canal.

It added that 22 vessels have been rescheduled to divert from their regular routes via the Suez Canal.

Ocean carrier operational departments, accustomed to planning voyages well in advance with only bad weather and port congestion requiring adjustments, are in a “state of flux”, with routing options “changing by the hour”, according to an industry contact spoken to by the Loadstar.

Davies Turner's ocean freight teams will continue to monitor the disruption in our ongoing attempts to reduce any disruption to shipments.

For more information about Davies Turner’s ocean freight forwarding and logistics services, please contact ocean@daviesturner.co.uk or visit the relevant pages of this website.

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