Within the past 96 Hours, five of the top 10 ocean shipping lines on the planet, have announced they will no longer handle shipments to or from Israel through the Red Sea (Suez Canal).
It began with MAERSK, and hours later, Hapag-Lloyd announced they would no longer handle any shipments via Red Sea transit. The next day, those companies were joined by CMA-CGM. One day later, those companies were joined by OOCL- Hong Kong (Owned by COSCO), and today, all four of those carriers were joined by the largest container shipping company in the world, MSC.
Here's a list of the top ten ocean shipping companies. The top 5 have now halted service to Israel via Red Sea:
It is important to note that all of these companies CAN still provide shipping service, but without using the Red Sea and its Suez Canal, all their ships must now go around the southern tip of Africa, adding 14,000 miles and three weeks travel time to the shipments. The price increase for such shipping is astronomical due to the vastly increased fuel costs.
This stoppage of ocean container service through the Red Sea is going to have an IMMEDIATE impact upon Israel, which must import much of what the country consumes. Shortages are likely to develop this coming week. Outages the next week. Stunning price increases will also likely take place over the next two weeks as availability of goods dries up.
Then, additional price increases will hit during week three, as any ship which had to go around Africa, bring that freight with the added cost of 14,000 miles and three weeks.
This may collapse the Israel economy.
