Red Sea diversions disrupt China’s car supply chains
Carmakers had been struggling with a lack of car carrier RoRo capacity before the Houthi attacks began in the Red Sea and now with NYK and K Line suspending sailings via the Suez Canal nearly all big car car-carrier operators are diverting round the Cape of Good Hope, further reducing already squ...
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Economic impact of Suez Canal diversions
For the UK and Europe fears are growing that any prolonged denial of access to the Suez Canal could impact faltering economies and derail plans to start cutting interest rates later this year.
Despite the confidence of European and UK central banks, uncertainties about the Red Sea crisis' impa...
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Insurers withdraw war risk cover
Since December 2023, nearly 30 commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea have faced missile strikes or near misses from the Yemen-based Houthis, including container ships owned by Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM.
As of last week, 550 container ships have been diverted away from the Suez Canal or are p...
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General Red Sea Update
The US and UK carried out eight strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, as the Iran-aligned armed group continues to target commercial shipping in the Red Sea, with no sign that the conflict will de-escalate anytime soon.
While many hoped that the situation in the Red Sea might be a shor...
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Red Sea Crisis; Situation Report, Wednesday 17th Jan
Despite coalition military action, Houthi rebels continue to attack commercial shipping and with container shipping line’ schedules showing Cape of Good Hope routing for vessels into early February and beyond, it is clear that they do not expect short-term access through the Suez Canal and Red ...
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RoRo car carriers and the Red Sea
Despite the widely reported news of container shipping lines rerouting vessels around southern Africa to avoid danger to crew and cargo in the Red Sea following attacks on ships by Houthi militants, the RoRo car carriers have a mixed policy on whether to transit through the Suez.
While the sup...
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New Developing Countries Trading Scheme
The UK government launched a new preferential trading scheme, The Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) last year, to provide tariff concessions for developing countries exporting to the UK market.
The DCTS replaces the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) and extends tariff cuts to hu...
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Retailers warn of delays after Red Sea attacks
Leading retailers including IKEA and NEXT have warned that the diverting of vessels aways from the Suez canal and around southern Africa will result in delays and may restrict the availability of certain products.
Re-routing container ships around Africa adds 3,500 nautical miles to a typical ...
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Metro’s new LCL guru
With over 20 years' experience in freight and logistics, the majority of which has been in the ocean freight environment and specifically the LCL product, in the UK and overseas, we are pleased to introduce our new Senior LCL Commercial Manager, Jane Kenny, who is leading this critical service ar...
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Sea freight shippers opt for air and sea/air alternatives
With the container shipping lines diverting around Africa until the Red Sea maritime security situation improves, the uncertainty and unpredictability that surrounds schedules could fuel demand for air cargo as shippers seek stability of services and certainty of transit times.
Air cargo deman...
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The real impact of diverting ships round Africa
Following the sharp escalation of attacks on container ships in the Bab-al-Mandeb strait off the coast of Yemen last week, major container shipping lines are diverting vessels around the southern tip of Africa, rendering the Suez routing unavailable for an unknown period.
With the Suez route c...
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Emergency Bulletin: Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait crisis update
The number of container ships diverting away from the Suez Canal and around the Cape of Good Hope had already reached 262 ships, or 12% of the global fleet by New Year’s Eve, rising a further 5% after the weekend’s Houthi attacks and will continue to grow until the Red Sea security situation ...
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