- Carriers halt Hormuz transits and suspend Suez/Red Sea routings amid Iran conflict risks
- About 170 containerships totalling 450,000 teu are stuck inside Hormuz; Middle East Gulf ports report shutdowns and disruptions
- Freight impact depends on how long Hormuz stays constrained; some vessels may get exemptions
- MSC, CMA CGM, Hapag Lloyd all order ships to seek safe shelter
LONDON: A sudden security shock in the Middle East Gulf is forcing carriers into risk-driven reroutes and port standstills, once again testing the resilience of global shipping.
LEADING container shipping carriers have halted vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz and rerouted vessels away from the Suez Canal after the US and Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against Iran, plunging the region’s key maritime chokepoints into crisis.
At least 15 containerships have reversed course from either entering or exiting the Strait of Hormuz, but most have either stopped or have diverted.
According to Linerlytica co-founder Hua Joo Tan, about 170 containerships with a combined capacity of around 450,000 teu — roughly 1.4% of the global fleet — are currently inside the strait and facing restrictions on exiting.
“The impact on the broader freight market depends on how long the strait remains shut,” Tan said, adding that the retreat from the Red Sea involves relatively few services and will likely have limited impact, although some ships will need to make U-turns.
Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have formally announced suspensions, but others are expected to follow later today.
“As a precautionary measure, MSC has suspended all bookings for worldwide cargo to the Middle East region until further notice,” MSC said in a statement issued on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier in the day MSC confirmed that it had instructed all vessels currently operating in the Gulf region, as well as those en route to the area, to proceed to designated safe shelter areas until further notice.
CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest shipping line, similarly ordered all ships currently in or en route to the Middle East Gulf to “take shelter” with immediate effect, and has suspended all Suez transits until further notice.
As the crisis deepened, Hapag-Lloyd issued a subsequent advisory announcing the suspension of all vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz, citing the waterway’s “official closure by relevant authorities amid the evolving security situation”.
The carrier warned that services calling at Middle East Gulf ports would face delays, rerouting, or schedule adjustments. Although Tehran has not formally declared a blockade of the strait, multiple shipping firms and charterers have independently ordered their vessels to halt passages through the waterway.
The immediate supply chain impact centres on the Strait of Hormuz.
There is no viable alternative to getting containers in or out of Middle East Gulf ports such as Dubai’s Jebel Ali, which was shut temporarily on Saturday after a fire caused by falling debris from a rocket attack.
“Carriers will instead omit these calls on east-west services and drop boxes at a least-worst alternative ports for onward transportation by road,” said Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight intelligence platform Xeneta.
“This will cause severe disruption and port congestion at a regional level but will not have a major impact on a global scale when compared to the seismic influence of conflict in the Red Sea.”
The rapidly disintegrating security situation is likely to further extend container line rerouting away from the Red Sea.
“The repercussions of the joint military operation will see the further weaponisation of trade and shatter hopes of a large-scale return of container shipping to the Red Sea in 2026,” said Sand.
Carriers had been returning selected east-west services to Suez Canal transits in recent months after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope since late 2023 because of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militia. Those plans, Sand said, will now be shelved.
Gemini partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd both issued customer advisories announcing the rerouting of selected services involving Middle East/India to Mediterranean and US East Coast trades from the Trans-Suez route to the Cape of Good Hope, citing “unforeseen constraints arising from the wider operating environment in the Red Sea region”.
While that was understood to relate to a lack of naval escort capacity, the prospect of Houthi attacks resuming will now reverse all previous plans to re-enter the Red Sea route.
Longer sailing distances around the Cape of Good Hope currently absorb around 2.5m teu of global container shipping capacity.
A large-scale return to the Red Sea would have freed up this capacity, slashed transit times and potentially seen freight rates collapse. With that prospect now off the table, Sand said rates on major global trades will continue to soften but “will not fall as hard as previously expected in the second half of the year.”
Speculation, nevertheless, has emerged that Chinese-owned vessels may be granted exemptions from the de facto Hormuz blockade by Iranian authorities, mirroring the informal immunity they have largely enjoyed from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Source: Lloyds List
