Seaborne crisis, major changes in global trade

International trade has seen major changes centered on the recent seaborne crisis. As shipping traffic on certain routes is disrupted, shipping companies are being forced to use alternative land routes and new ports.

Due to the complications in transporting goods, especially in the Gulf countries, goods unloaded from container ships are now being delivered to their destinations by truck. As a result, both time and cost have increased compared to before.

In this situation, the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia has emerged as an important regional logistics hub. Large shipping companies such as MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and COSCO are now bringing goods to Jeddah via the Suez Canal.

From there, goods are being delivered to Sharjah, Bahrain and Kuwait by truck using desert roads. Direct sea transport of goods to these areas has been almost stopped for the past two months.

However, due to the sudden increase in the pressure of goods, severe congestion has arisen at the port of Jeddah. Arthur Barillas de Rezende, co-founder of freight forwarding company Oversy, said the port was not prepared to handle such a large volume of imports.

As an alternative, Oman's Sohar port and the United Arab Emirates' Khorfakkan and Fujairah ports are being used to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

Goods are also being sent to Baghdad and Basra in Iraq via the port of Aqaba in Jordan. At the same time, a new corridor has been opened to deliver goods to northern Iraq via Turkey.

According to analysts, this change could have a long-term impact on the global supply chain and further increase trade costs.