Suez Canal traffic rises as ships divert away from the Strait of Hormuz

The Suez Canal Authority projected that about 15,500 ships will transit the waterway this fiscal year, roughly 20 percent more than the 13,000 of a year earlier. The increase is largely a result of the Strait of Hormuz crisis; with traffic through Hormuz severely curtailed, part of the flow of energy cargoes and jet fuel has shifted to the Red Sea and Suez Canal route.

The gradual return of ships to the Suez route, after a period in which insecurity around Bab al-Mandab had pushed many to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, shows global trade flows shifting away from the Persian Gulf. This rerouting raises the cost and time of moving goods to the region and is one of the crisis's indirect consequences for the economies of Iran and its neighbours.