The Iran war has disrupted two critical chokepoints: the Strait of Hormuz, now closed to commercial traffic, and the Red Sea corridor between the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal.

Ships that once passed through both are now rerouting around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly two weeks to Asia-Europe journeys and significantly increasing fuel and operating costs.

How are Gulf countries receiving imports now?

Over the past two months, shipowners have turned to land corridors to deliver food and manufactured goods to Gulf coastal countries that can no longer be reached by sea.

The Saudi port of Jeddah on the Red Sea has become a regional hub, receiving vessels from MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Cosco via the Suez Canal. Cargo then moves by truck along desert highways to Sharjah, Bahrain and Kuwait.

“The port of Jeddah is not at all sized to handle such import volumes, and a port congestion situation is emerging,” said Arthur Barillas de The, co-founder of freight forwarder Ovrsea.

Kpler Marine Traffic data shows 11 container ships docked in Jeddah on Thursday, with nine waiting, and an average wait of 36 hours before unloading, up from 17 hours the previous week.

Shipowners have also designated three ports outside the Strait of Hormuz as alternatives: Oman’s Sohar and the UAE ports of Khorfakkan and Fujairah, all connected by land to the United Arab Emirates. The port of Aqaba in Jordan is serving as a gateway for goods destined for Baghdad and Basra in Iraq, while a Turkish corridor is also channelling goods into northern Iraq.

Why are Asia-Europe container ships avoiding the Suez Canal?

The Red Sea avoidance predates the Iran war but has been accelerated by it. It began on 19 November 2023 with the first Houthi attack on a container ship off the coast of Yemen, according to CyclOpe, a specialist commodities publication.

Since then, rerouting around Africa has become systematic, said Ronan Boudet, head of container intelligence at Kpler.

Ships now follow Africa’s eastern coast as far as the Cape of Good Hope in southern South Africa before heading north toward Europe and the Mediterranean.

“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,” said Edouard Louis-Dreyfus, chairman of French shipping giant Louis Dreyfus Armateurs.

Yves Guillo, a supply chain expert at management consultancy Efeso, added that 70 percent of freight traffic that passed through the Red Sea in 2023 is now being rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope.

How much has Cape of Good Hope traffic increased?

The scale of the shift is measurable. Data from the IMF’s PortWatch platform shows commercial vessel traffic via the Cape of Good Hope has more than tripled in three years, while traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait has fallen by more than half.

Between 1 March and 24 April this year, an average of 20 commercial vessels rounded the Cape of Good Hope each day, compared with six during the same period in 2023. Red Sea traffic fell from 18 transits per day through Bab al-Mandeb in March-April 2023 to just five three years later.

What are the costs of rerouting ships around Africa?

The detour is expensive. Journey times between Asia and Europe have lengthened by an average of two weeks, and costs have risen because ships require 30 to 50 percent more fuel and 10 to 20 percent more vessels to maintain the same frequency of service, according to Guillo.

The average price to transport a standard 40-foot container on major shipping routes rose 14 percent in April compared with the same period last year, based on changes in the Drewry freight index.

The consequences are uneven across regions. Some African ports are benefiting: Tanger Med handled 11 million standard containers in 2025, up 8.4 percent.

Egypt, by contrast, has absorbed severe losses. According to CyclOpe, the country lost $7 billion in Suez Canal toll revenues in 2024, a drop of more than 60 percent compared with 2023.