International trade: with war, maritime routes are being redesigned, Africa in the pivot

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but especially the tensions in the Red Sea, are reshaping the logistical routes of trade in goods, with Africa becoming a pivot in global container ship traffic, according to logistics and maritime sources.

Locally, for two months, the blockade of Hormuz has also pushed shipowners to find alternative land corridors to deliver by truck, foodstuffs and manufactured products which can no longer arrive by sea in the coastal countries of the Gulf.

- What are the alternative routes to deliver to the Gulf countries?

The Saudi port of Jeddah on the Red Sea is becoming a new regional "hub", where ships from the sea giants MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Cosco arrive via the Suez Canal. The loads then leave by truck on a desert highway to deliver emirates such as Sharjah, Bahrain or Kuwait, which have not been served by sea for two months.

But "the port of Jeddah is not at all sized to absorb all these import volumes, and a phenomenon of port congestion is emerging," Arthur Barillas de Thé, co-founder of OVRsea, a transport agent, a sort of travel agency for goods, told AFP.

According to data from Kpler Marine Traffic, eleven container ships were docked in Jeddah on Wednesday and nine waiting, with an average wait of a day and a half before unloading, instead of 17 hours the previous week.

- What are the other alternative routes to deliver to the Gulf countries?

The shipowners announced they would use an Omani port, Sohar, and two Emirati ports, KhorFakkan and Fujairah, located outside the Strait of Hormuz and connected by land to other cities in the United Arab Emirates.

The port of Aqaba in Jordan serves as a base for sending goods to Baghdad or Basra, Iraq. And a Turkish corridor also allows goods to be transported to northern Iraq.

- On international lines, why do Asia-Europe container ships avoid the Suez Canal?

It started well before the war in Iran. But it is clearly linked to Iran.

The avoidance of the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal dates from November 19, 2023, during the first attack carried out by the Houthi militia, ally of Iran, from the Yemeni coast, against a container ship, recalls the review specialized in CyclOpe raw materials.

The rerouting of boats is now systematic since the resumption of Houthi attacks, notes Ronan Boudet, container market analyst at Kpler.

They circumnavigate Africa by following its coasts in the east to the Cape of Good Hope, to the south of South Africa, before returning north towards Europe and the Mediterranean.

“With the current situation in the Gulf, we have put several pieces back into the machine, it will not get better right away,” Edouard Louis-D told AFP