What is Happening in the Red Sea?

As you may be aware from recent news coverage, there has been continuing disruption to major east-to-west trade routes that access the Red Sea and Suez Canal from Asia. Militants based in the adjoining countries along the Red Sea route are attacking cargo vessels, endangering lives and damaging ships indiscriminately.

As a result, global logistics companies are adjusting routes around the southern end of Africa, instead of through the Mediterranean Sea. This change in routing to avoid the dangers posed in the Red Sea adds over five thousand miles of sea travel and anywhere from 7 to 21 days to the intended path, depending on the ship’s origin and navigation route to ports along the east coast of the United States.

The US government and shipping companies have each stated they expect this issue to continue into February, despite US military response and a multi-national call for an end to the attacks.

What is the Impact?

What this means for MedSource Partners is in the near term, we will see an increase in shipping times – adding up to an additional 4 weeks on all routes that use the Suez Canal. As empty containers stack up in N. America, S. America and Europe, we expect delays to ripple effect into all east-to-west routes due to a scarcity of containers and lengthened return time to Asian ports as we close out Q1 and into Q2 of 2024.

We will continue to monitor the situation on behalf of our partners and please reach out to your MedSource representative or customer service with any questions or concerns.

Thank you, as always, for your business and partnership.