/ Freight News
Tankers reverse course in Red Sea after loading in Saudi
Seatrade Maritime News · Jul 22, 2026
WatchOceanGlobalBab el-Mandeb
Following Houthi threats to ships calling in Saudi some vessels have changed course in the Red Sea
Original reporting
Seatrade Maritime News ↗Published · Trade press
ContainerMath summarises and classifies this report; we do not reproduce it. Read the original for the full account.
What this moves
Context or analysis — nothing has stopped moving.
No freight-market transmission has been identified for this story yet. It is listed for context.
The corridor
Bab el-Mandeb Strait
Global chokepointRed Sea / Gulf of AdenThe southern gate to the Red Sea, between Yemen and Djibouti. Suez is only useful to a ship that can get through here first, which is why the two are effectively a single routing decision.
Oil & products transit
4.1 million barrels per day
Down from 9.3 million b/d in 2023 — more than half the traffic left in a single year.
How disruption here transmits
- Bab el-Mandeb and Suez are one decision, not two: a carrier avoiding this strait has already given up the canal, so disruption here shows up in Suez transit counts.
- It sits inside the Joint War Committee's listed areas, so hull war-risk premiums and crew-hazard terms are priced per transit rather than absorbed in normal operating cost.
- Vessel-tracking and canal-transit counts move within days of an incident, well before any freight index prints — this is the leading indicator for Asia–Europe cost.
Realistic alternatives
- Cape of Good Hope, with the same ten-days-each-way penalty as a Suez diversion.
ContainerMathThe industry standard for 3D container cargo packing and loading plans. Optimize layouts, maximize volume, and reduce shipping overhead.
Built by Backrock Studios