Europe's Carriers Scramble as Hormuz Crisis Shatters Red Sea Return

Europe's largest container lines have suspended all transits through the Strait of Hormuz and reversed course on a long-awaited return to the Red Sea, after the escalation of hostilities between the United States, Israel and Iran threw global shipping into its most severe disruption since the Houthi attacks began in late 2023.

Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd, Copenhagen's Maersk and France's CMA CGM each confirmed over the weekend that vessels would be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope indefinitely. Hapag-Lloyd imposed a war risk surcharge of $1,500 per TEU from Monday, with CMA CGM following with its own emergency conflict levy of $2,000 per container.

The moves came after Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps broadcast warnings to vessels that no ship would be permitted to pass through Hormuz — a 21-mile-wide chokepoint carrying roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil. Lloyd's List Intelligence data showed traffic through the strait collapsed by 81 per cent on March 1 compared with a week earlier, with just one crude tanker recorded in transit.

For European industry, the immediate concern extends beyond container freight. QatarEnergy has halted LNG production following Iranian strikes on its facilities, and no LNG carriers transited Hormuz on March 1. With European gas stocks already at low levels heading into spring, the prospect of Asian and European buyers competing for scarce cargoes has rattled energy markets. Brent crude surged as much as 13 per cent.

The EU naval mission EUNAVFOR ASPIDES warned that attacks on merchant vessels in the region could not be ruled out, and that its forces remained on high alert.

For carriers that had only recently begun returning selected services to the Suez corridor, the timing is brutal. As Xeneta's chief analyst Peter Sand noted, any plans for a phased return to the Red Sea in 2026 have now been shelved.