Despite Trump’s insistence on social media, the Strait of Hormuz remains a thorny issue. Rather than a free route, this vital passageway for the global transit of crude oil and LNG is still effectively under Tehran’s control, with the Iranian government continuing to demand a toll in exchange for guaranteeing safe transit.
Making matters worse is the heavy attack launched by Israel on Beirut in the last few hours, which has jeopardised the two-week truce reached yesterday thanks to the mediation of Pakistan and China, prompting Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz once again.
Until the situation in Lebanon – which the Islamic Republic of Iran regards as an integral part of the agreement with the US – is clarified, container shipping companies remain, understandably, concerned. Hapag-Lloyd, for example, has stated that the situation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is still uncertain. Meanwhile, CMA CGM has decided to continue to gradually increase services through the Suez Canal rather than circumnavigating Africa.
Only one boxship has crossed the Strait of Hormuz since yesterday; the Lucia, a 700 TEU vessel, which departed from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
“The issue of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which we hope can be resolved, is not merely an energy crisis. It calls a key pillar of globalisation into question: the continuity and reliability of trade,” Laura Miele, president of the Shipping Agents’ Association (ASAMAR) in Livorno, told Port News.
“Over the last few decades,” she adds, “we have built a highly efficient but also fragile system that only works when conditions are stable. When a strategic passageway like the Strait of Hormuz becomes a crisis point, higher costs, delays, increased insurance premiums and significant uncertainty immediately arise.”
It is no coincidence that Miele speaks of a systemic crisis, which could, however, also mark a turning point, “accelerating the transition towards a more resilient model, with more diversified supply chains and a greater focus on risk management”.
However, the shipping agent remains convinced that the market, even when forced to do so and not without difficulty, has always found a way to respond to international crises: “They are often partial solutions, not accessible to everyone, but nonetheless effective in the short term,” she says. “So far, they have never developed into stable alternatives, partly because they lacked the necessary characteristics to do so, and partly because the causes of the crises were, fortunately, resolved relatively quickly. The hope is that the same will happen this time too – Indeed, I hope it is already happening,” she says.
The bottom line is that goods always find a way to reach their markets. Laura Miele believes that the current president of Federagenti, Paolo Pessina, is absolutely right when he says that the shipping industry (ships, shipping companies, ports and us shipping agents) will once again rise to the challenge with the resilience and adaptability it has demonstrated in recent times: “Our President has hit the nail on the head: he weighs up the situation realistically without succumbing to pointless pessimism. What is needed is realism, analytical skills and responsiveness. We have to keep calm, which is not the opposite of promptness, but the most effective way of putting it into practice.”
Of course, crises can also present opportunities for logistics chain operators, particularly shipping companies, who have diversified their routes and introduced surcharges to stay afloat in these turbulent times. In fact, it is indeed this type of surcharge – designed to offset fluctuations in fuel prices –that has fuelled a recent controversy over the legitimacy of the measures taken by carriers to tackle a crisis affecting fuel logistics. In a report, Xeneta highlighted how carriers are currently concerned about their inability to access fuel reliably, wherever and whenever they need it. This is a purely operational issue which, according to the consultancy firm, shipping lines are attempting to resolve in the wrong way – by imposing fuel surcharges – whilst presenting it as a cost issue.
“Misunderstandings are often deliberate, but are short-lived,” remarks Laura Miele. “It is clear,” she emphasises, “that the problem is not the cost itself: price rises are never the cause of the crisis, nor are they the solution. ” Prices are merely the immediate symptom of a more serious problem. To resolve it, we can no longer think of ourselves as individual players or individual segments of the supply chain. Instead, we have to act with the awareness that we are part of a fully globalised market – as is the case with maritime transport.”
The shipping agent points out that, since the onset of the pandemic crisis, the market has been going through a continuous series of systemic shocks, which are having a severe impact on the Mediterranean, a region that “continues to be vulnerable to scenarios of conflict and tension, with direct repercussions on trade”
Italy, too, is currently in limbo. The president of Asamar agrees with Nereo Marcucci’s standpoint in a recent Port News interview: the country – as the former president of Livorno Port Authority stated – needs to set up a real industrial policy that will help Italy safeguard its economic interests in the global trade scenario.
“I agree. I suspect that the system’s weakness may lie in the lack of a well-structured industrial policy, which ultimately limits the potential of our logistics system as well,” says Miele, who nevertheless looks to the future with cautious, very cautious optimism: “I remain confident: I believe that many of the current challenges, though significant, will gradually be resolved over the next few months.”
Translation by Giles Foster
