The crisis in the Red Sea continues to have repercussions on commercial traffic and ports. The diversion of maritime traffic from the Red Sea and the Suez Canal has caused congestion in the port of Singapore, one of the busiest in the world and is expected to also have repercussions on final destinations. Last month, according to Bloomberg, the utilization rate of Singapore’s ports rose to 90%, demonstrating the worsening of the situation: the optimal utilization rate for a port is 70%. As the utilization rate increases, the waiting time of ships in the port also increases.
New attack in the Red Sea
Meanwhile, Middle Eastern media reported, a merchant ship issued a distress call reporting a missile hitting the ship about 129 nautical miles east of Aden in Yemen while it was en route from Malaysia to Venice in Italy, it said. the British maritime security firm Ambrey, which said it assessed the ship to be aligned with “the Houthis’ target profile.”
Transits halved
The daily average of ships transiting the Suez Canal fell from 71 to 37 in the first five months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The data is contained in a new study by Assoporti, the association of Italian ports and Srm , the study center connected to the Intesa group. Due to Houthi attacks on merchant ships transiting the Red Sea, most shipping companies decided to change route via the Cape of Good Hope. A choice which, as highlighted by a recent study by Fedespedi, the national federation of Italian freight forwarders, is currently “a consolidated option, which now seems to configure a new normality”. On average in the four quarters of the fiscal years 2022/2023 (1 °July-30 June) and in the first two weeks of 2023/2024 around 550 ships per week passed through the Suez Canal, while in the first weeks of 2024 they were around half according to data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
The impact on ports
According to Fedespedi, with the Suez crisis, Italian ports recorded a decline of 3.2%, although the report specifies that “it is still early to evaluate the effects of the crisis on Mediterranean ports in all its aspects”. Among those surveyed, La Spezia (+8.9%), Salerno (+5.1%) and Genoa (+1.1%) are growing, while the most penalized are the Adriatic ports, such as Trieste, whose results are influenced by the reduction of
transshipment activities, Venice and Ravenna. «On Italian ports, in addition to the Suez crisis, the lackluster performance of foreign trade weighs heavily, which recorded, in the first two months of 2024, compared to the same two months of 2023, a modest growth in exports (+0.6 %) and a sharp contraction in imports (-10.4%)”, highlights the report. At the moment, the ports that are benefiting most from the situation that has arisen due to the tensions linked to the war in the Middle East are the ports closest to Gibraltar, such as Tangier (Eurokai terminal: +26%) and those Spanish ports (overall +12.1%), but the results of the Turkish ports are also good.
