As tensions escalate in the Red Sea, 30% of the container fleet will be stranded

On December 3, the Number 9, a container ship owned by the British company Castle Harbour and operated by OOCL, was hit by a rocket fired by a Houthi drone during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Linerlytica noted that the attack on the container ship Number 9 "widens the threat to all ships passing through the Red Sea, even those that have no connection whatsoever to Israel."

Haifa based shipping company ZIM Line has already diverted its vessels from the Suez Canal to a longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, while Denmark's Maersk Line has also rerecorted two vessels chartered from Israel following the Nov. 25 attack on the CMA CGM Symi.

According to Linerlytica, of the 653 container ships currently transits the Suez Canal (with a total capacity of 8.25 million TEUs), only eight of them are operated by Israeli carriers and 29 are owned by relevant Israeli interests.

"The impact of the current ship diversion is small, but any escalation of the threat to ship security in the Suez Canal would have a greater impact as 30 percent of total container ship capacity would be affected," Linerlytica said. So far, transit restrictions on the Panama Canal and the diversion of the Suez Canal have had little impact. Congestion in the Panama Canal peaked in the week ending Dec. 3, when the number of ships waiting in line reached 31, but the situation has eased as more ships have moved to the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope. "While these initiatives will help absorb some of the excess vessels, the impact is limited at this stage as it affects less than 2 per cent of the entire fleet," Mr Linerlytica said.