On 23 March, the container ship Ever Given ran aground in the narrow canal after being buffeted by strong wind, blocking the path of hundreds of ships backed up in both directions. Six days later, the Ever Given was afloat again, and shipping traffic picked up once more. But while congestion in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean is slowly easing, the impact on world trade is considerable. That’s because the Suez Canal is one of the world's most important trade routes. About 98 percent of all container ships use it on their way from Asia to Europe or vice versa, making it one of the main arteries for global freight and goods trade. 

The accident happened at an already difficult time, exacerbating existing problems on the world's oceans caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry had been battling skyrocketing demand and container shortages for months. In the UK, the difficulties in international shipping have also compounded problems caused by Brexit, with companies struggling to absorb the increasing freight costs charged by shipping lines, which is likely to lead to higher prices for consumers, or to businesses having to close down.

The impact of the Suez Canal’s blockage on global trade could reach a volume of six to ten billion US dollars per day, with consumers continuing to feel the effects of the congestion for weeks to come, according to data from Shippeo, a provider of real-time visibility in the transport industry. Textiles, consumer electronics and parts for mechanical engineering in particular will continue to be delayed. 

To keep industrial production going in Europe, companies need to quickly find out where they can get the parts they need via other routes. The same applies to trade. Companies’ own supply chain transparency is vital when it comes to determining by when they can get which supplies at what price via other channels.

"Our data shows that electronic pre-products will be delayed by 25 days to 60 days. The current delays will not only lead to chaos in Europe's ports, but the tied-up containers will not be available to trade via maritime even weeks later," comments Lucien Besse, COO, Shippeo SAS. "We expect it will take at least another twelve weeks for supply chains to recover from this incident."

Shippeo makes the forecasts based on its real-time visibility platform, which calculates the estimated time of arrival of a delivery from over 200 data sources - up to 24 hours in advance and with an accuracy of up to 95 percent. Shippeo is connected to over 140,000 carriers through transport management systems and telematics. Our proprietary algorithms use these and a variety of other external data to make supply chains more transparent and calculate the estimated time of arrival of a delivery.