{"id":132367,"date":"2026-03-23T08:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T11:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/901231071"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T11:47:51","slug":"global-ocean-shipping-mostly-steady-despite-middle-easta-turbulence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/global-ocean-shipping-mostly-steady-despite-middle-easta-turbulence\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Ocean Shipping Mostly Steady Despite Middle East\u00c2\u00a0Turbulence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The global movement of goods via ocean freight<\/a> has, thus far, remained largely unshaken by the war in Iran\u2014though the impacts of the conflict may not yet be fully felt.<\/p>\n

According to data from online shipping marketplace Freightos<\/a>, the first week of the war saw many bookings suspended, which raised alarms that trade could become increasingly constrained in the weeks to come. However, \u201cOperationally, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> for ocean freight is really just a disruption for containers<\/a> meant to go to or from the Gulf states,\u201d Judah Levine, the group\u2019s head of research, told Sourcing Journal.<\/p>\n

Levine said that bookings have resumed now that ocean carriers have developed alternate routes, many headed to India and onward to alternate ports or those accessible in the Gulf. Other than Jebel Ali Port, located in Dubai, there are others East of the Strait, including some in Oman and Jeddah Port, located in the Northern Red Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo from that perspective, there have been a lot of surcharges, and it\u2019s much more expensive, but those containers now are starting to move,\u201d Levine said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it will be in the volumes that they normally would see; I assume it\u2019s more critical [cargo] that\u2019s going through, because once they get there, they have a very long transit to get to where they\u2019re going.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Related Stories <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Those surface lanes aren\u2019t built to take over the traffic that Jebel Ali would typically handle, and congestion may ramp up at the alternate ports, \u201cbut for the for the broader container market, there really have been no reports of operational disruption,\u201d he added. So far, cargo headed from the Far East to the Middle East, which could have been diverted to Malaysia, Singapore or Sri Lanka, hasn\u2019t caused backups in those markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was anticipation that that would cause congestion there, and that would impact other lanes, especially like Asia, Europe, but so far\u2026 that seems not to be the case,\u201d Levine said. In fact, \u201cIt seems, in general, the overall global market is not being impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is changing are costs, however. Carriers have announced fuel surcharges as the price of oil exceeded $100 per barrel for the first time in four years. Maersk<\/a> last week touted a $200-per-container surcharge, and MSC said it would similarly jack up its rates in mid-March. Levine said other surcharges are also taking shape, \u201clike peak season surcharges or emergency surcharges.\u201d MSC<\/a> said it would implement a war risk surcharge of up to $4,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo those are quite significant, and those will start being introduced in the short term,\u201d Levine said. \u201cThe question is whether the rates will take, because there are still market dynamics about supply and demand\u2014about whether shippers are going to accept it, or whether there will start to be differences between carriers and competition and rates will come down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether those added costs will scare off shippers\u2014or when that might occur\u2014Levine said he believes there will be somewhat of a readiness to accept higher prices, at least until they become prohibitive. \u201cIf it reduces the volumes that people are going to are going to ship, then, that might be an actual disruption to the overall freight [market],\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, you\u2019ll see stuff moving\u2014it\u2019ll just be more expensive, like what we saw during Covid\u201d when some were willing to pay up to $20,000 per container for essential cargo.<\/p>\n

Noel Hacegaba, CEO of the Port of Long Beach<\/a>, said the gateway (which, along with its Los Angeles sister port, handles the highest volume of cargo of any in the United States) has not seen fluctuations in its activity since the war began. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt present I can tell you that there are no impacts to operations in the San Pedro Bay, where all terminals are open and cargo continues to move fluidly,\u201d he said during a webinar this week. \u201cBut because this is a strategically important region, the ripple effects of this conflict have far reaching implications for trade routes around the world,\u201d he added, noting that about 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz, amounting to about 130 ship transits per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cConflict disrupts commerce, and this conflict is sending tremendous tremors through the trade network,\u201d he added. The conflict broke out shortly after the Supreme Court\u2019s landmark decision regarding President Donald Trump\u2019s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs<\/a>, \u201cadding another layer of complexity to the ongoing trade uncertainty,\u201d the POLB CEO said.<\/p>\n

But as for direct impacts to the California port\u2019s operations, Hacegaba appeared confident that they could be avoided. \u201cHere at the Port of Long Beach, only about 1 percent of our imported petroleum last year came from Iraq via ships that passed through the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d he said. During the first two months of this year, the port brought in 5.8 million barrels of petroleum from Iraq, however, most of the oil arriving at the Long Beach gateway comes from Alaska, Canada, Mexico and Colombia.<\/p>\n

As such, \u201cCargo operations at the Port of Long Beach continue unabated,\u201d he added. In spite of the situation in the Middle East, he said the port expects to see \u201ca relatively flat ebb and flow of cargo for the rest for the next three months, followed by a bounce half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though the Port of Long Beach is not experiencing any immediate effects from the Middle East conflict, we should remember that the global supply chain is interconnected,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… to data from online shipping<\/span> marketplace Freightos, the first week … actual disruption to the overall freight<\/span> [market],\u00e2\u0080\u009d he said. \u00e2\u0080\u009cOtherwise … per container for essential cargo<\/span>. Noel Hacegaba, CEO of … and Colombia. As such, \u00e2\u0080\u009cCargo<\/span> operations at the Port of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}