The disruption, intensified by the Iran conflict and the continuing risk of attacks near Yemen’s coast, has pushed major carriers including MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Cosco to reroute vessels away from traditional Gulf and Suez-linked lanes, raising transport costs, extending delivery times and straining alternative ports across the region.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Jeddah has emerged as a key regional transit hub, receiving cargo through the Suez Canal before shipments are transferred by truck across desert highways to destinations including Sharjah, Bahrain and Kuwait, where direct maritime access has been disrupted for nearly two months.

“The port of Jeddah is not at all sized to handle such import volumes and a port congestion situation is emerging,” Arthur Barillas de The, co-founder of freight forwarder Ovrsea, said.Data from Kpler Marine Traffic showed 11 container ships docked in Jeddah on Thursday, with nine additional vessels waiting and average unloading delays rising to 36 hours, compared with 17 hours a week earlier.

Shipping operators have also increasingly relied on ports outside the Strait of Hormuz, including Sohar in Oman and the UAE ports of Khorfakkan and Fujairah, which are connected inland through road freight networks. Jordan’s Aqaba port has become a staging point for cargo moving into Baghdad and Basra, while a Turkish land corridor is supplying northern Iraq.

The wider rerouting of Asia-Europe trade began before the current Iran war but accelerated after attacks by Iran-backed Houthi forces on commercial shipping in the Red Sea from late 2023, making passage through the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and Suez Canal increasingly risky.Analysts say the diversion has now become structural.

Container ships are increasingly sailing around Africa’s eastern coastline, passing the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of South Africa before turning north toward Europe and the Mediterranean, replacing what was once the fastest maritime corridor between Asia and Europe.

“Today, 70% of the freight traffic that went through the Red Sea in 2023 is being rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope,” said Yves Guillo, a supply chain specialist at consultancy Efeso.Edouard Louis-Dreyfus, chairman of French shipping group Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, said the latest Gulf tensions had deepened an already entrenched shift.

“With the current situation in the Gulf, we have put several more coins in the machine, it’s not going to get better anytime soon,” he said.International Monetary Fund PortWatch data based on vessel GPS tracking showed commercial ship traffic around the Cape of Good Hope has more than tripled over the past three years, while traffic through the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait has fallen by more than half.

Between March 1 and April 24 this year, an average of 20 commercial vessels passed around the Cape each day, compared with six during the same period in 2023. By contrast, daily traffic through Bab Al-Mandeb fell from 18 transits to five over the same timeframe.

The detours have added roughly two weeks to average Asia-Europe shipping times and significantly raised operating costs, with ships requiring 30% to 50% more fuel and fleets needing 10% to 20% more vessels to maintain the same delivery frequency, Guillo said.The average cost of shipping a standard 40-foot container on major trade routes rose 14% in April from a year earlier, according to the Drewry freight index cited by Efeso.

The shift has created winners and losers across the region.African ports such as Morocco’s Tanger Med have benefited from higher traffic volumes. The port authority said it handled 11 million standard containers in 2025, an increase of 8.4% from the previous year.

Egypt, however, has suffered a sharp fall in Suez Canal toll revenues, a major source of state income. Commodities publication CyclOpe estimated the country lost $7 billion in canal revenue in 2024, a decline of more than 60% from 2023 levels.