Event 9 · Shipping
Houthi attacks in the Red Sea send ships around the Cape
Yemen's Houthis seized the Galaxy Leader on 19 November 2023 and went on to attack merchant ships; from December 2023 container lines diverted around the Cape of Good Hope. Attacks paused in November 2025, a first return to Suez in February 2026 was reversed as the Iran war began, and returns gathered pace from July 2026: in early October 2026 container transits passed half their 2023 level for the first time.
- 19 Nov 2023 – ongoingdates
- 3economies named
- 3products watched
- 12sources
Before and after
All goods, Feb 2024 against Feb 2023, lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier). Economies are coloured by the change in their trade; the economies the event names have a dashed ring.
Loading the network…
What to watch Whether Asia–Europe trade values hold while their timing shifts. Customs data record origin and destination, not the route or the freight paid, so the diversion itself does not show in the network.
Measured, not asserted
Changes on a year earlier and in partner shares between Feb 2023 and Feb 2024. They say what moved in the window, not why it moved.
World trade in all goods: change on a year earlier
World trade in all goods, lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier): −1.4% in Feb 2023 (the base), −2.4% in Feb 2024. Lowest since the base: −8.9% in Aug 2023.
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
The named economies’ all goods trade, Feb 2024 against a year earlier
Largest fall: Yemen imports −75.5%; largest rise: Yemen exports +0.1%.
| Share of | Filed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All goods | Yemen | imports | −75.5% | yes |
| All goods | Yemen | exports | +0.1% | yes |
| All goods | Egypt | imports | −0.5% | yes |
| All goods | Egypt | exports | −9.8% | yes |
| All goods | Israel | imports | −12.8% | yes |
| All goods | Israel | exports | −3.4% | yes |
| Natural gas | Yemen | imports | – | yes |
| Natural gas | Egypt | imports | +82.2% | yes |
| Natural gas | Egypt | exports | −83.1% | yes |
| Natural gas | Israel | imports | −100% | yes |
| Natural gas | Israel | exports | +73.1% | yes |
| Refined oil products | Yemen | imports | +347% | yes |
| Refined oil products | Yemen | exports | – | yes |
| Refined oil products | Egypt | imports | +55.1% | yes |
| Refined oil products | Egypt | exports | +116% | yes |
| Refined oil products | Israel | imports | +2.4% | yes |
| Refined oil products | Israel | exports | −7.3% | yes |
Diversion: partner shares, Feb 2023 to Feb 2024
Largest move: Egypt → Saudi Arabia, +8.4 pp (8.9% → 17.3%).
| Share of | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yemen → China | exports | 1.8% | 1.6% | −0.2 pp |
| Yemen → India | exports | 23.4% | 31.2% | +7.9 pp |
| Yemen → Saudi Arabia | exports | 23.8% | 25.1% | +1.3 pp |
| Yemen → Thailand | exports | 3.1% | 2% | −1.1 pp |
| Yemen → Oman | exports | 11.7% | 9.8% | −1.8 pp |
| China → Egypt | imports | 15.9% | 14.8% | −1.1 pp |
| Saudi Arabia → Egypt | imports | 6.6% | 7% | +0.4 pp |
| United States → Egypt | imports | 6.6% | 5.8% | −0.8 pp |
| Russia → Egypt | imports | 5.9% | 6.1% | +0.2 pp |
| Germany → Egypt | imports | 4.8% | 5.7% | +0.9 pp |
| Egypt → Saudi Arabia | exports | 8.9% | 17.3% | +8.4 pp |
| Egypt → Türkiye | exports | 5.9% | 8.2% | +2.3 pp |
| Egypt → Italy | exports | 8.5% | 4.4% | −4.1 pp |
| Egypt → United States | exports | 4.5% | 4.4% | −0.1 pp |
| Egypt → UAE | exports | 2.8% | 4.2% | +1.4 pp |
| China → Israel | imports | 19.9% | 20.5% | +0.5 pp |
| United States → Israel | imports | 10.8% | 12.6% | +1.7 pp |
| Germany → Israel | imports | 6.7% | 7.5% | +0.8 pp |
| Türkiye → Israel | imports | 7% | 6% | −1.1 pp |
| Italy → Israel | imports | 4% | 4.3% | +0.3 pp |
| Israel → United States | exports | 28% | 28.5% | +0.5 pp |
| Israel → China | exports | 8.8% | 10.6% | +1.7 pp |
| Israel → Ireland | exports | 5% | 5.4% | +0.4 pp |
| Israel → Palestine | exports | 6.3% | 4.6% | −1.7 pp |
| Israel → Germany | exports | 3.7% | 4.1% | +0.5 pp |
Who gained and lost share of world all goods exports
Shares of world all goods exports, Feb 2023 to Feb 2024: gained most: China +0.6 pp; lost most: Norway −0.2 pp.
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Who gained and lost share of world natural gas exports
Shares of world natural gas exports, Feb 2023 to Feb 2024: gained most: Australia +2.3 pp; lost most: UK −2.1 pp.
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Who gained and lost share of world refined oil products exports
Shares of world refined oil products exports, Feb 2023 to Feb 2024: gained most: India +1.3 pp; lost most: China −3.6 pp.
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Reading the numbers
Documented context for the figures above that run against the event’s headline. The measurements stand as they are; each item cites its sources.
Dec 2023–Feb 2024 starts a month into the attacks (first seizure 19 November 2023) and covers the months container lines left the Red Sea: weekly Suez passages were down more than 45% in February 2024 and Cape passages had more than doubled. Customs values record origin and destination, not the route: the page shows the immediate effect on who traded with whom.
- Product definition
World all-goods trade −2.2% on a year earlier (Dec 2023–Feb 2024, $5.6tn), after −1.5% at the base (Dec 2022–Feb 2023, $5.7tn). The disruption moved ships, not origins and destinations. Suez Canal trade volume in January–February 2024 was down 50% on a year earlier and Cape of Good Hope transit up 74%; containerised shipments through the canal fell 72% between November 2023 and February 2024 and Asia-to-Europe freight rates rose 270% on February 2023, while containers shipped worldwide in January still topped 14 million. [6] [7] [8]
- How the data are reported
Yemen's imports −75.5% ($2.6bn → $645m, Dec 2022–Feb 2023 → Dec 2023–Feb 2024). Yemen filed no monthly data to UN Comtrade for 2020–2022; its monthly series begins in January 2023. The base window is therefore read from its partners' export reports and the later one from Yemen's own report, which puts $645m against the $2.5bn that 72 partners report shipping to Yemen in the same three months. [9]
- Overlapping event
Israel's imports −12.8% ($22.3bn → $19.4bn); Israel's exports −3.4% ($18.8bn → $18.2bn). The war from 7 October 2023 falls inside the later window: the Bank of Israel says it split the year, with GDP contracting and imports declining considerably in the fourth quarter. Israel's statistics bureau puts 2023 goods imports at NIS 332.9bn (−6.7%); in October–December trend imports excluding ships, aircraft, diamonds and fuels fell at a 13.9% annual rate, consumer goods at 18.5%. [11] [10]
- Overlapping event
Egypt's exports −9.8% ($13.4bn → $12.1bn); Egypt → Italy 8.5% → 4.4% of Egypt's exports. Egypt exported no LNG cargo between July and October 2023 as gas went to summer power demand, and its 2023 LNG exports fell nearly 50% to 3.7 million tonnes. In this store's natural gas basket Egypt's exports fell from $2.58bn to $436m between the two windows and the flow to Italy from $514m to $26m, more than the whole fall in Egypt's exports. [12]
Partner shares, economy by economy
Each named economy’s five largest partners over the window, in fixed colours, with the rest as Other. The table gives the change in percentage points between Feb 2023 and Feb 2024.
Not drawn, too small or erratic to read month by month: Yemen (natural gas imports).
Yemen: all goods imports by supplier
China: 25.1% in Feb 2023, 12.1% in Feb 2024 (−13 pp).
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Yemen: all goods exports by destination
China: 1.8% in Feb 2023, 1.6% in Feb 2024 (−0.2 pp).
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Exports as the partners report them: Yemen has not filed these months.
Egypt: all goods imports by supplier
China: 15.9% in Feb 2023, 14.8% in Feb 2024 (−1.1 pp).
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Egypt: all goods exports by destination
Saudi Arabia: 8.9% in Feb 2023, 17.3% in Feb 2024 (+8.4 pp).
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Israel: all goods imports by supplier
China: 19.9% in Feb 2023, 20.5% in Feb 2024 (+0.5 pp).
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Israel: all goods exports by destination
United States: 28% in Feb 2023, 28.5% in Feb 2024 (+0.5 pp).
Source: UN Comtrade monthly data, all reporters that filed; mirror rule; lens M (3-month sum against a year earlier).
Timeline
- Houthis seize the Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea [1]
- UK and US strike Houthi military targets in Yemen [2]
- UNCTAD: container tonnage through Suez down 82% [3]
- Houthi attacks on ships pause for about three and a half months [4]
- Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd's ME11 service returns to Suez [4]
- Houthis say they will resume attacks after strikes on Iran [4]
- Gemini Alliance moves AE15/SE3 back to Suez [5]
- BIMCO: Suez container transits pass half the 2023 level [5]
What else changed
This page covers the Houthi attacks that began in November 2023 and are still listed as ongoing. The Bab al-Mandab crisis from September 2026, at the southern end of the same route, is part of the Iran war (event 12) and is listed there.
World exports of all goods changed −2.2% between Feb 2023 and Feb 2024.
Other events in the same window:
- Japan tightens chip-material exports to Korea · 4 Jul 2019 – 23 Mar 2023
- WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic · 11 Mar 2020 – 5 May 2023
- Russia invades Ukraine; oil and potash sanctions follow · 24 Feb 2022 – ongoing
- US curbs exports of advanced chips and chip tools to China · 7 Oct 2022 – ongoing
- China licenses exports of gallium, germanium and graphite · 1 Aug 2023 – ongoing
Values are in US dollars: prices and exchange rates move them as well as volumes, and this page does not separate them. None of the numbers here says why trade moved.
Documented context for the figures that run against the headline is in “Reading the numbers”, with sources.
Coverage
Who has filed
108 economies had filed Feb 2024, 100% of 2024 world exports. Every named economy filed the months shown.
Sources
- Yemen's Houthi rebels hijack an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea and take 25 crew members hostage · Associated Press (via WLOS) · 19 Nov 2023
- PM statement on strikes against Houthi military targets: 12 January 2024 · UK Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Defence · 12 Jan 2024
- Navigating troubled waters: Impact to global trade of disruption of shipping routes in the Red Sea, Black Sea and Panama Canal · UNCTAD · 22 Feb 2024
- Red Sea Corridor Slips Back Into Crisis as Houthi Threats Resurface · gCaptain · 2 Mar 2026
- 'Suez Canal container traffic passes 50% recovery mark' (BIMCO Shipping number of the week) · SWZ Maritime · 19 Oct 2026
- Red Sea Attacks Disrupt Global Trade · IMF Blog (Chart of the Week; Kamali, Koepke, Sozzi, Verschuur) · 7 Mar 2024
- Global Trade Outlook and Statistics, April 2024 · World Trade Organization · 10 Apr 2024
- Kiel Trade Indicator 2/24: Freight Volume in the Red Sea Continues to Decline, Fewer Ships in Hamburg · Kiel Institute for the World Economy · 7 Feb 2024
- Data availability: reporter 887 (Yemen), monthly, HS (getDA/C/M/HS) · UN Comtrade (comtradeapi.un.org) · no date; accessed 25 Oct 2026
- Israel's Foreign Trade in Goods – 2023 (Media Release 012/2024) · Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel · 14 Jan 2024
- Bank of Israel Annual Report 2023: Governor's letter to the Government and the Knesset Finance Committee · Bank of Israel · 28 Mar 2024
- Ongoing global risks heighten Egyptian LNG, LPG export uncertainty · S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts), via Hellenic Shipping News · 12 Feb 2024
Related case studies and chains
No case study is built on this event yet.