January freight loop - Red Sea crisis impact assessment for global shippers

The next 4-5 weeks will be critical for global shipping and container traffic from Asia to Europe and Mediterranean to Asia. Any disruption ahead of Chinese New Year is always a concern for shippers and while the current situation is already causing bottlenecks in global supply chains, for the moment, we believe there is ample capacity to deal with the resulting congestion, equipment shortages and gaps to schedules. It should be noted, however, that container equipment is likely to remain displaced for some weeks to come, affecting service schedules and causing inflationary headwinds with limited flexibility to mitigate any escalation in the regional security situation.