Spot rates

tracked under Shipping ▸ Container freight

state of play · Shipping

Yemen's Houthis killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops and wounded 11 civilians in Saudi Arabia on August 6-7, the deadliest Houthi escalation in years; the dual-track attack struck both Saudi territory and Yemeni government positions at Marib simultaneously. Al Jazeera said tensions had risen sharply since the US-Israel war on Iran began; Tehran Times framed the attack as Yemen "flipping the battlefield" on Saudi Arabia. The Makkah joint defence pact signed the same day adds a mutual-defence clause that could be invoked if Houthi attacks on Saudi territory continue, directly linking regional treaty obligations to the chokepoint conflict. The Houthi naval blockade at Ras Tanura and Yanbu has not been lifted; the Iran-US MOU expires August 17.

On August 4 a cargo vessel was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, 20 nautical miles northeast of Al Khasab; the UK Maritime Trade Operations issued an alert but did not attribute the strike or name the vessel. Separately, a senior Iranian source told Reuters that Iran is seeking full inbound inspection authority over ships entering the strait under a temporary reopening plan being negotiated with Oman, meaning every inbound tanker would need Iranian clearance even under a nominal reopening. Qatar said mediators were making progress toward US-Iran talks; Iran denied Trump's version of the talks' status. Two Turkish-owned cargo ships, Nadezhda and Yasar, were struck by drones near Russia's Novorossiysk port on the night of August 3; Turkey's Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern and called on both Russia and Ukraine for concrete safety measures, deliberately not naming Ukraine as the attacker. The captain of the Nadezhda attributed the strike to Ukraine. Turkey's coast guard began refusing Dardanelles passage to commercial vessels bound for Novorossiysk and Odessa on August 8, Bloomberg reported citing sources, the first operational response after three formal diplomatic protests in 2026; the restriction applies symmetrically to both belligerents and has no official Turkish confirmation; Supply Chain Brain noted the closure stacks on top of already-disrupted oil flows from the Iran war.

An unidentified drone struck two gas tankers at Egypt's Damietta port on July 30, a potential new front in the US-Iran conflict targeting the last relatively intact oil export corridor in the region. Saudi Arabia's 43-nation maritime defence coalition signed 14 nations at its founding Riyadh session; its operational capacity remains unproven. The Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb remain simultaneously disrupted; the IRGC's July 31 strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain added GCC waters to the risk map. The Houthi naval blockade at Ras Tanura and Yanbu has not been lifted. The Iran-US MOU expires August 17. War-risk insurance stands at 2-6% of vessel value per Hormuz voyage.

An EU naval mission led by Italy boarded two sanctioned Russian tankers in international waters west of Pantelleria on August 2-3, the third EU boarding in under two weeks. France began the pattern in July. The EU has shifted from port-state-control enforcement to active naval interdiction in international waters, a legally complex escalation Russia has not publicly responded to.

Watch: Saudi Arabia's military and diplomatic response to August 6-7 Houthi attacks on its territory; whether the Makkah pact's mutual-defence clause is formally invoked; whether the Oman-Iran inspection-authority plan gains US acceptance before the August 17 MOU deadline; UKMTO attribution of the August 4 Hormuz strike; Turkey's follow-up to the Novorossiysk drone attacks and whether Ankara names Ukraine; Ras Tanura loading resumption; Saudi coalition operational commitments; detained shadow-fleet tanker outcomes and Russia's diplomatic response.

The weekly spot price for shipping a 40-foot steel container across major global trade lanes, the fastest-moving public indicator of disruption to seaborne trade.

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Hapag-Lloyd

Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd AG is Germany's largest container line and the world's fifth-largest, whose fleet routing decisions at Suez and Hormuz transmit directly into global freight costs.

·4 takes ·Jul 3

MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company)

The world's largest container carrier by fleet capacity, privately held in Geneva, Switzerland, and a bellwether for how chokepoint crises transmit into global freight costs.

·4 takes ·Jul 3

Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI)

China's weekly spot-freight benchmark for containerized exports from Shanghai, the world's largest container port, serving as the de facto global shipping-rate barometer.

·4 takes ·Jul 3

Container freight: the market that prices everything that moves by sea

Five carriers control two-thirds of global box capacity; spot rates tracked weekly by the Shanghai index ripple into the price of virtually every traded good.

·4 takes ·Jul 3

Dual chokepoint closure drives container freight sharply higher

With Hormuz restricted and the Red Sea still avoided, carriers reroute via the Cape, lifting spot rates 29-129% on key lanes

What Broke ·4 takes ·Jun 22

The briefing, by email