Red Sea crisis exposes need for greater supply chain resilience
Key takeaways
- When major global shipping routes are disrupted at this scale, the knock-on effects can run for months or years after the immediate cause is resolved."
- Avoiding the Suez Canal and rerouting around southern Africa adds an estimated seven to 10 days to shipping journeys and can increase voyage costs by around $1m per trip.
- Longer transit times mean vessels remain in circulation for extended periods, reducing available capacity across global shipping networks.
Red Sea crisis exposes need for greater supply chain resilience “The businesses that are navigating this period well are the ones that built that flexibility in before they needed it." Credit: Thierry Dosogne/Gettyimages.co.uk · Just Style · Thierry Dosogne/Gettyimages.co.uk Isatou Ndure Wed, June 3, 2026 at 5:07 PM GMT+7 3 min read Since November 2023, attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have pushed freight and insurance costs higher, with many carriers rerouting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope instead of using the Suez Canal.
According to the UK s Department for Transport, around 85% of UK international freight by weight and 55% by value is transported by sea, meaning prolonged disruption to key shipping routes can have significant consequences for businesses and supply chains.
"The instinct is to treat something like this as a temporary problem that will correct itself once the situation changes," said Richard Gray, chief operations and commercial officer at Cleveland Containers, part of the Cleveland Group.