This event, which paralyzed the Suez Canal for a few days, marked a turning point in the maritime sector, not only in the increase of freight costs, but also in the new regulations to be adopted by shipping lines worldwide.
How much will the epic that clogged the Suez Canal continue to cost the world? The answer is short: a lot.
It is going to be difficult to give a single figure that covers it all, since the stay of this huge ship, stranded in the Suez Canal generated a shift in the cost of freight worldwide. In the first three days of the canal stoppage, the figure amounted to 10 billion dollars.
An example of this was the case of a charterer of a very large tanker who accumulated charges of between $30,000 and $80,000 per day for parking the tanker in front of Suez, waiting for the canal to open.
The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from China to Europe rose to an estimated $8,000, almost four times what it was a year ago.
Revenues for very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, carrying oil from the Middle East to China rose to $1,371 a day, posting profits for only the second day in more than seven weeks. And that route was not even affected by the gridlock in the Suez Canal.
Suezmax vessels, which typically carry 1 million barrels of oil, now charge about $17,000 a day, the most since June 2020.
Caterpillar Inc, the largest U.S. machinery producer and one of the world’s largest, is facing shipment delays due to the Suez Canal blockade and is even considering airlifting products if necessary. Shipping costs skyrocketed because of this stoppage.
The blockage of the Suez Canal forced the shipping industry to incur high costs to reroute shipments of goods and commodities, including oil and LNG.
