Houthis Red Sea disruption driving up the cost of imported goods

American Action News:

The Houthi attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea are threatening to disrupt U.S. and global markets with delayed shipping times and increased good prices, The Washington Post reported.

The Yemen-based Houthis have launched several attacks since Oct. 7 against vessels in the Red Sea as part of retaliation efforts against Israel and its allies. In an effort to avoid the Houthis, commercial vessels are now taking longer routes to reach their destinations, resulting in delays and higher shipping costs, and ultimately increased prices for consumer goods in the U.S. and across the world, according to the Post.

Major shipping companies like COSCO, Maersk and CMA CGM, as well as several fuel tankers, previously utilized major trade routes in the Red Sea that cut through Africa and Asia, according to the Post. The recent spate of Houthi attacks has forced shipping vessels to move down and around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

This new route adds thousands of miles and potentially weeks of time to a vessel’s trip, according to the Post.

“It’s about an 8 percent longer journey, which is going to drive prices up quite a bit for ocean freight – that’s a material impact on prices for the goods themselves,” Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, told the Post. Petersen noted that the higher costs associated with shipping these goods will affect the prices of “most of the stuff that you see in stores.”
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It will also impact the timing of getting seasonal goods to market.  So far the response has been mainly defensive.  What is needed is an attack on the Houthis and their missile sides.

Iran is mainly responsible for these attacks and Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested blowing Iran off the map.  It is pretty clear that Iran is behind the Houthis operation and the US and its allies need to find a way to deal with Iran to solve the matter.

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“Without Iran, there are no Houthis,” Graham told Fox News.

“The Houthis are completely backed by Iran. I have been saying for six months now…hit Iran. They have oil fields out in the open, they have the Revolutionary Guard headquarters you can see from space. Blow it off the map.

“If you really want to protect American soldiers, make it real to the ayatollah [that if] you attack a solider through a proxy, we’re coming after you.”
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Iran is also believed to be behind the drone attacks by Hezbollah on US troops in Iraq. 

See also:

Drones vs. warships: How US military hardware is combatting Houthi attacks on maritime shipping