Three years after Houthi missiles drove the world’s container fleets southward, the Cape of Good Hope has graduated from emergency detour to default corridor. Brussels has yet to grasp the consequences
The Suez Canal recovery should be in full swing. The Houthis stopped attacking ships in November. War risk premiums collapsed. Yet container traffic remains 60% below 2023 levels
A car carrier unloads 469 vehicles at Lamu, a port that barely functioned a year ago. The Iran war has placed African ports at the centre of a reshuffled global trade map
Angelos Karakostas arrived at Delphi with record revenues and previewed unreleased quarterly data. The full-year 2025 results, read carefully, tell a rather different story
From the pandemic to the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and now the Strait of Hormuz, the sea is no longer the stable space of circulation that global trade once took for granted
Developments in the Middle East test global maritime trade routes, as rising geopolitical tension increases costs, alters shipping patterns, and places critical energy corridors under renewed pressure without any formal blockad
Between 25–31 January 2026, global shipping trends revealed an industry under pressure, as freight rates softened, carrier earnings deteriorated, fleet expansion accelerated, and geopolitical uncertainty reshaped routing, risk pricing, and strategic decision-making across liner markets
When the map becomes the business model, shipping stops pricing distance and fuel and starts pricing access, leverage, and geopolitical exposure, as routes evolve from neutral corridors into strategic assets shaping costs, risk, and reliability
Global shipping shook itself awake 18–24 January 2026: Maersk dared Suez, CMA CGM blinked, container rates crumbled, and Greek tankers skirted sanctions—capital and tanker deals whispered audacious confidence
Geopolitical crises in key maritime chokepoints cost the global shipping industry $14 billion annually, disrupting trade routes, raising freight rates, and threatening supply chain stability worldwide