A large number of ships carrying food have been avoiding the Red Sea due to the shipping crisis, Reuters reported. Ishan Banu, chief agricultural analyst at market research firm Kepler, said: "About seven million tonnes of grain normally pass through the Suez Canal every month, and now more than three million tonnes of that has been diverted. Last week, the number of ships leaving the Red Sea jumped from 20 percent to 45 percent."

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) said yesterday that only 500,000 tons of wheat were transported through the Suez Canal in the first half of January, a drop of nearly 40 percent, due to attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. A German grain trader also said: "The diversions have really become more serious in the past few days."

    At present, due to the ongoing tension in the Red Sea, many international shipping companies have chosen to avoid the traditional Red Sea route and turn to Africa, which makes many African ports face increasing pressure.

    Due to the increase in ship voyages caused by the detour to Africa, there is now a surge in demand for Marine fuel oil at ports in South Africa, Mauritius and Spain's Canary Islands, and the price of Marine fuel oil in Cape Town, South Africa, has soared by 15% recently, and some ships on Asia-Europe routes even need to refuel in Singapore ahead of time. At the same time, many African port infrastructures are struggling to cope with the sudden increase in shipping demand, causing congestion in some ports.

    The United States freight news network reported that due to the detour of Africa will lead to a significant increase in shipping time and costs, there are still many shipping companies are not willing to reroute, but by the tension in the Red Sea, the Middle East Sea maritime premiums rise and other factors, the future will have more and more ships choose to detour Africa, which will have an impact on the global supply chain. Creating uncertainty for many economies.

    On January 18, the international logistics company DHL released its 2024 Global Maritime Market Outlook, saying that due to the continued attacks by the Houthi armed forces on commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea, all its maritime carriers have suspended transport services through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and most of the ships are rerouted to the Cape of Good Hope. This has added 10 to 15 days to travel times between Asia and Europe and has had an impact on capacity and rates.

    Among them, the main routes affected are to and from Europe and the Middle East, as well as the use of Mediterranean ports as transit routes into Africa. At the same time, traffic from Asia to the east coast of the Americas is also affected due to congestion caused by the diversion of the Panama Canal, which is expected to continue until at least the first quarter of 2024.

    It is analyzed that the circumnavigation has great influence on container ships and automobile carriers. In terms of the tanker market, compared with the route changes brought about by the diversion, the change of trade routes will be more complex, and the transformation of cooperation between trading countries and regions may reshape the pattern of global oil trade.