Ships get rerouted as Suez stays blocked

Shipowners are beginning to reroute ships bound for the Suez Canal around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, a costly alternative to avoid the logjam of vessels caused by the giant container ship blocking the canal.

There are growing signs that the effort to dislodge the ship, Ever Given, may take many days if not weeks. Already, more than 200 vessels are stuck at either end awaiting clear passage.

When deciding whether to divert, a shipping company will weigh the likely cost of sitting for days outside the canal versus the added time of steaming around Africa. It is not an easy choice.

“It is like choosing the queue at the post office; it is never the right decision,” said Alex Booth, head of research at Kpler, a firm that tracks petroleum shipping.

Already, seven giant carriers of liquefied natural gas appear to have decided to change course away from the canal, according to Kpler.

One of these ships, chartered by Royal Dutch Shell, had picked up a cargo of gas at Sabine Pass in Texas and was heading toward the canal when it made a sharp turn in the Atlantic Ocean toward Africa. Another, operated by Qatargas, a state energy company, loaded at Ras Laffan, the Qatar energy hub, and headed for Suez but then veered away toward the Cape of Good Hope before reaching the Red Sea.

Booth figures that it would be unlikely for a ship that is already waiting at the canal to backtrack all the way around Africa. That would mean a nearly six-week journey to reach Amsterdam in the Netherlands, compared with just 13 days from the canal. If the call is made in the early part of a journey, though, it may make sense.