Red Sea Shipping Crisis
The Red Sea Shipping Crisis began in November 2023, when Houthi forces in Yemen started attacking merchant ships, leading most container lines to avoid the Suez Canal and sail around Africa instead.
What happened and why it matters
The Red Sea crisis added one to two weeks to many Asia to Europe voyages and raised ocean freight costs worldwide, a reminder that route risk ends up in landed cost. After Houthi forces seized the car carrier Galaxy Leader on November 19, 2023, and attacked other ships, carriers including Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd, and CMA CGM paused Red Sea sailings. About 80% of container traffic shifted to the Cape of Good Hope, adding 10 to 14 days. The longer voyages absorbed ship capacity and pushed up rates and surcharges. In November 2025 the Houthis signaled that attacks had halted while a Gaza ceasefire held.
People
Related events
Sources
- A year of Houthi terror in numbers (Lloyd's List via Kuehne+Nagel) mykn.kuehne-nagel.com
- Houthi attacks on ships escalate (GPB News, NPR) gpb.org
- Industry united in call to free Galaxy Leader crew (Seatrade Maritime) seatrade-maritime.com