Container vessel traffic in the Middle East remains unaffected by the escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict since 13 June with carriers maintaining their scheduled calls at Middle East Gulf and Israeli ports, while Suez transits have also been retained. Zim affirmed the continuation of its services to the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa while CMA CGM is still proceeding to reroute 3 of their Europe-Indian subcontinent/Far East ships through the Suez this month despite the rising tensions. How
The escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict in the Middle East has sparked fears of a potential disruption to vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. The impact on the container markets will be far less severe compared to the tanker and LNG markets, as the Middle East Gulf is mostly an import market with very little exports of any strategic importance that are shipped in containers. Middle East Gulf ports located north of the Strait of Hormuz handled a total of 29m teu of containers in 2023, acc