Shipping Giants divert from the Suez Canal amid rising threats.

Hello, you're listening to the Marketplace Morning Report live from the BBC World Service.

I'm Leanna Byrne and a very good morning to you.

For the world's five largest container shipping companies

are avoiding the Suez Canal because of increased attacks by Hooty militants in Yemen.

They say they are targeting ships traveling to Israel

in response to the bombing of Gaza.

There have been reports this morning that there have been an explosion near a UK vessel.

But Egypt says traffic is normal through the canal.

Marco Furgione is the Director General of the Institute of Export and

International Trade. What does this mean for businesses and supply chains in the coming months?

It's about 12% of global trade transits through Suez and therefore has to use the Baba Mandab's trade.

But when you look at containers, that's 30% of global container freight goes through Suez, it's a major route for oil and

LPG so the impact of any delay or postponement of travel through Suez has a huge impact on consumers but it also has an impact on the

global supply chains and on industrial productivity.

So if the ships don't go through the straits can't use Suez, the alternative is to

divert south to go round the Cape of Good Hope, which adds over 3,500 nautical miles and a delay of up to two weeks.

All of that then cascades into further delays because ships are in the wrong place, containers are in the wrong place,

ports get congested, so there's a massive impact.

Marco Foggioni there. Now let's do the numbers.

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US sanctions in 2019 over allegations of assisting Chinese state surveillance in Xinjiang.

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