The threat of Houthi rebels from Yemen: After several shipping companies, including Denmark's Maersek, the world's second-largest shipping company, announced that they were suspending their operations in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, Israel believes that the move will lead to significant delays in shipments and, as a result, to higher prices.
The Association of Chambers of Commerce estimates that the current increase in the price of sea freight by about 40 per cent will lead to an increase in the prices of imported goods by at least 3.5 per cent. These are a wide range of products that are brought to Israel via the sea route from the East – from food products, through clothing, electronics, and more. In the case of cars, the price increases are expected to be significantly sharper.
The packages will be delayed, photo: Israel Post PR
Vice President of the Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce, Amir Shani, appealed yesterday to the Customs Administration not to include the additional costs resulting from extending the voyage of ships in the goods system for customs purposes, otherwise the price of imported products subject to tax will be even higher.
In his letter, Shani specifies that the additional sailing time for the Maersk, ZIM and MSC ships that will skip the Red Sea and have to bypass the African continent will be about 20 days. The total sailing time will be between 40 and 45 days.
As a result of the threat and these changes, a senior official in one of the electricity grids noted that the substantial impact of imports by sea will be reflected mainly ahead of Passover, when the prices of products imported from the East will reflect an average increase of about 5 percent, as a result of the increase in the cost of the transportation component. It's mostly about impacting both large white products and large screens.
New vehicles. Dear ones, photo: none
Assi Arbiv, one of the owners of the Clinton Trade Group, already talks about the actual effect: "There are already delays in arrivals. A container that should have arrived on 2 December will arrive on 6 January. Instead of 30 days, arrival can be delayed to 60 days. In addition, freight from the Far East increased by $1,000. That's a 50% increase, as the cost of a container has gone up to $2,000."
Asked whether the Houthi threats will affect the upcoming Passover holiday, Arbib replied: "If the situation remains, the shipments will probably be affected, but we don't know that."
Logisticare, which provides logistics, storage and inventory management solutions for several leading electrical retailers, said it recently received updates from customers about an expected 18-day delay in goods imported from China.
Another field coming from the Far East is personal imports, which are very popular in Israel. The post office notes that personal imports are not affected by the Houthi threat because the items arrive airborne.
According to Eran Kristal, Deputy Director General of Trade at Israel Post: "The Iron Sword War has also affected the field of personal imports, especially ordering products from international trade sites. Although these are not affected by the threat of maritime transport because the items arrive airborne, there were and still are limitations on the air route. Orders from international trade sites – Ali Express, which leads in terms of volume, and of course also other Chinese sites and sites from Europe and the US such as Next and Amazon – are not affected by maritime threats but by the supply of cargo flights to Israel.
During the first days of the fighting, the international sites were unable to find flights to send the packages to Israel, because the international airlines stopped flying to Israel and the prioritization of cargo was almost entirely for emergency needs. In the past month, we have seen a very significant recovery."
"More weeks at sea"
Among the variety of food products, there are also quite a few imported from the Far East that may also be affected by the situation.
Houthi rebels in Yemen, Photo: AP/
Tal Sagi, VP of Mia Food Company: "I believe that in the near future there will be shortages in products coming from the Far East, depending on the supplier. We place orders ahead of schedule and schedules, so there may be delays and shortages of inventory. Those who have built on goods for Passover should take into account that they may arrive late."
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