Suez Canal

The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) warned on Thursday that the pivotal shipping passage lost nearly 25 percent of its revenue in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, largely as a result of attacks on civilian commercial ships by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.

Insurance costs for Red Sea transit have risen by up to 50 percent since the Houthi terrorists began attacking commercial vessels.

The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development reported that the volume of freight passing through the Suez Canal has dropped by 45 percent.

Chinese exporters are feeling the pinch of rising shipping costs due to Red Sea terrorist attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis of Yemen, to the point that Premier Li Qiang made an oblique reference to the crisis in his speech to the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

Shipping costs rose over 300 percent due to the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea.

The Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday that container ship traffic through the Red Sea and Suez Canal was down an astonishing 90 percent year-on-year for the first week of January – meaning attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist of Yemen have almost completely shut down one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes.

Danish shipping giant Maersk suspended Red Sea shipping again on Sunday, calling a 48-hour pause to reconsider its plans for resuming Suez Canal routes after the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen attacked one of its container ships.

The effort by shipping companies to reroute traffic from the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope, thus avoiding drone and missile attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen, is running into major logistical hurdles because African ports are not ready to accommodate the surge of massive container ships and tankers.

The Pentagon said more than 20 countries have signed up to protect Red Sea shipping against the Iran-backed Houthis, but it only named 12.

Sources in the shipping industry told Reuters on Thursday they are “in the dark” about the Biden administration’s new Operation Prosperity Garden, a multinational effort to protect Red Sea shipping from terrorist attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen.

Shipping rates from China to Europe are soaring as a growing number of companies suspend and restrict transit through the Red Sea.

The Maersk shipping company suspended shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after Houthi terrorists launched a string of attacks.

Australia is considering a U.S. request to send a warship to the Red Sea to help protect shipping from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Europe, the Middle East and India will on Saturday unveil plans to create a modern-day Spice Route, in a challenge to China’s Belt and Road.

Two tankers carrying oil products and gas collided in the Suez Canal, disrupting traffic through the globally important waterway.

Russian tankers that would normally carry oil to European customers are instead being rerouted through the Arctic to China, according to an OilPrice report Friday.

A container ship carrying over 65,000 metric tons of Ukrainian corn ran aground in the Suez Canal on Monday, evoking nervous recollections of the March 2021 disaster in which a similar ship called MV Ever Given blocked the vital canal for six agonizing days.

The huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal earlier this year finally reached the Netherlands on Thursday to begin unloading cargo.

CAIRO — Egypt on Tuesday announced plans to widen and deepen the southern part of the Suez Canal where a hulking vessel ran aground and closed off the crucial waterway in March.

Egypt is refusing to release the container ship Ever Given, which blocked billions of dollars in trade from passing through the Suez Canal from March 23-29, until the ship’s owners and insurers compensate the Egyptian government for losses incurred from the incident.

Lt. Gen. Oussama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said at a press conference on Thursday that the blockage of the Suez Canal by the container ship MV Ever Given imposed a billion dollars in damages on Egypt.

The Indian crew of the container ship Ever Given — which blocked billions of dollars in trade from passing through the Suez Canal for nearly a week — may face “criminal charges” and “house arrest” after Egyptian officials launched a probe Wednesday into how the ship became lodged in the channel.

Chinese state media on Monday used the blockage of the Suez Canal to propose trade routes across land established by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an alternative to maritime shipping. 

The MV Ever Given reached Great Bitter Lake, clearing the Suez Canal on Monday.

The massive container ship MV Ever Given which has been blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week was “partially refloated” Monday morning, raising hopes the critical waterway will soon be cleared for a resumption of maritime traffic.

A pair of specially chartered tugboats on Sunday were ordered to make best speed to the Suez Canal to aid efforts to free a skyscraper-sized container ship wedged for days across the crucial waterway.

Defense officials said the U.S. Navy will deploy an assessment team to the blocked Suez Canal as soon as Saturday, CNN reports.

Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation suggested freight shippers should consider the Northern Sea Route as an “alternative” to Egypt’s Suez Canal on Thursday after a container ship blocked the canal and halted billions of dollars worth of trade this week.

The blockage of the Suez Canal by stranded container supership MV Ever Given is turning out to be more of a catastrophe than originally anticipated.

Tugboats and dredgers joined land-based heavy machinery Friday working to free a giant container ship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fourth day.

The Suez Canal blockage, affecting global oil shipping, is a reminder of how important U.S. energy independence remains.

The MV Ever Given clogged one of the most vital shipping routes in the world, after its route traced a familiar shape in the Red Sea.

The closure of the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest maritime shipping lanes, continues into its second day after a cargo ship ran aground and completely blocked passage between the Red and Mediterranean Seas. The Suez Canal Authority announced Thursday it was “temporarily suspending navigation” through the canal as maritime traffic backed up on both ends, Agence France-Presse reported.

Traffic through the vital Suez Canal was blocked Wednesday when the MV Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in operation, turned sideways and ran aground.

An Israeli submarine transited the Suez Canal and is in the Red Sea, poised for possible action against Iran, the Israeli television station KAN 11 reported.

Britain’s interception Thursday of a Syria-bound super tanker believed to be carrying Iranian crude oil in waters off Gibraltar has been applauded by White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.