The Red Sea crisis is butterfly effect

After the“Red Sea crisis” broke out, the ports in the western Mediterranean are facing a“Congestion crisis” because the shipping companies have chosen to divert to the Cape of Good Hope.

According to the financial times, container ports in the western Mediterranean are about to become overloaded, leading to higher inventory costs and component shortages for European retailers and manufacturers.

Local officials say traffic has surged at the Mediterranean ports of Tangiers in Morocco, Algeciras in Spain and Barcelona after the Red Sea route became subject to geopolitical threats, they are dealing with the problem of full yards and ships waiting to dock.

The Port of Barcelona, Spain's largest seaport, is also the Mediterranean coast one of the top ten container ports.

Maersk recently issued a warning that yard usage is rising at the port of Barcelona, which is handling far higher than normal levels of transshipment. It is understood that the port of Barcelona in February container throughput increased 17% year-on-year. In addition, the terminals at the ports of Algeciras and Tangier in the Mediterranean were also affected.

With key ports struggling to cope with the surge in transshipment volumes, directors at maritime consultancy MSI said congestion and delays at ports could force some companies to build up inventories. Many terminal operators expect the problem to persist as long as routes continue to be diverted.