The ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza has been impacting logistics recently, which in some cases has a knock-on-effect globally.

Recently there have been several reported attacks on cargo ships in Middle East shipping lanes, which have led to some ships avoiding the area altogether and sailing around the Cape of Good Hope instead of using the Suez Canal.

Originally, this seemed to be aimed at only vessels with Israeli links, but more recently ships with no apparent links have been the target of drone attacks. In one case a car carrier was reportedly boarded by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and rerouted to Yemen.

The overall impact has resulted in increased costs for carriers and to some extent the uncertainty has supported recent ocean freight rate increases from Asia that steamship lines have been trying to introduce all year.

Several shipping lines are continuing their services into Israel but have introduced an emergency risk surcharge (ERS) or a war surcharge for cargo aboard those vessels.

Evolution Forwarding specialise in logistics movements, by air, ocean, road and rail. For further information please email info@evolutionforwarding.com or call 0800 4346244.