Exploring the Red Sea Crisis's Impacts on the Shipping Industry: Taiwanese Shipping Experts' Opinions

Abstract

Since October 7, 2023, the Houthi militia in Yemen has continuously attacked Israel and its nearby ships in the Red Sea. This crisis has impacted on global ship operations, freight rates, and shipping networks, since this conflict seriously affects the international trade between Europe and Asia and brings many unpredictable butterfly effects (e.g. supply chain disruption, and high transportation costs in shipping and air cargo). This paper explores its impact on the supply chain and suggests potential solutions; and considers perceptions on who should be responsible for the crisis, and who will actually shoulder the responsibility for the crisis. The potential extra fuel consumption is calculated using one real containership's data in this paper. Also, the paper adopts semi-structured interviews of nine shipping operators and four government officials from Taiwan to illustrate expert perceptions of this key shipping area, and analyses and summarizes the research findings using grounded theory analysis. Results provide the latest insights and operational decision analysis suggestions for shipping operators and relevant stakeholders.