The escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict in the Middle East has sparked fears
of a potential disruption to vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. The impact
on the container markets will be far less severe compared to the tanker and LNG
markets, as the Middle East Gulf is mostly an import market with very little
exports of any strategic importance that are shipped in containers.
Middle East Gulf ports located north of the Strait of Hormuz handled a total of
29m teu of containers in 2023, acc