Trendwatch: Container lines offer convoluted connections from Asia – Middle East; Airlines Face ‘Existential Threat’ From War, Deutsche Bank Says; U.S. to Offer $20B Reinsurance Program for Strait of Hormuz Shipping

How the Iran conflict is impacting global ocean shipping flows

The impact of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran on ocean shipping reaches beyond the Middle East. As a result, the return of Red Sea services are now out the window, carriers are implementing surcharges and contract negotiations have stalled, Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen said at TPM26 by S&P Global.

The U.S. and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, disrupting logistics activity in the Middle East as air and ocean carriers deployed temporary suspensions and other service disruptions for cargo transiting through the region.

Container lines offer convoluted connections from Asia – Middle East

Containers lines are offering increasingly convoluted routings including overland connections to keep trade flowing between Asia and the Gulf region in the Middle East.

With major container carriers having suspended services through the Strait of Hormuz to the Arabian Gulf due to the security threat from the war in Iran and direct services from Asia into Red Sea ports as a result of the Houthi threat to commercial shipping in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait lengthy alternatives are being offered.

Airlines Face ‘Existential Threat’ From War, Deutsche Bank Says

U.S. airlines face an “existential threat” from a surge in jet fuel that may drive their costs dramatically higher, according to Deutsche Bank.

Jet fuel prices in the U.S. have surged during the war in the Middle East — more than doubling on a year-to-date basis while crude oil advanced by about 50% in the same period. The last time that kind of widening in the so-called crack spread, the difference between underlying oil prices and jet fuel prices, happened was in 2005, the firm wrote in a March 6 note to clients, adding that back then “the damage to the airline industry was significant and widespread,” with carriers Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines filing for bankruptcy.

U.S. to Offer $20B Reinsurance Program for Strait of Hormuz Shipping

The Trump administration says that it plans to roll out a reinsurance program for vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

CNBC reports that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will insure losses up to $20 billion on a rolling basis, as the White House looks to keep commercial shipping moving through the critical chokepoint in the face of heightened risks brought on by the ongoing conflict with Iran. 

Jet Fuel Shock Looms on U.S. West Coast as Asian Exports Dry Up

Energy export data shows South Korean jet fuel exports to the United States West Coast is dropping as countries around the world are holding onto the energy for its own self-preservation.

“South Korean jet fuel exports have slowed, currently averaging about half the pace so far in March that they were last year, and that pace should only slow further,” said Matt Smith lead oil analyst at Kpler. “This is problematic for the US West Coast, which is the leading destination. The US West Coast relies on South Korea for 85 percent of its jet fuel imports.”

Tariff Uncertainty to Keep U.S. Container Imports Below 2025 Levels, NRF Says

U.S. containerized imports are expected to remain below last year’s levels through the first half of 2026 as tariff uncertainty continues to weigh on trade flows, according to the latest Global Port Tracker report released Monday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

The outlook comes as global supply chains navigate a rapidly shifting trade policy landscape following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), alongside new duties introduced by the Trump administration and rising geopolitical risks tied to the conflict involving Iran.

Any attack on innocent seafarers unacceptable: IMO Secretary-General

As the war in Iran moves into second week International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez says there have been at least seven seafarer deaths as the result of attacks on shipping.

Opening the 12th session of the Sub-Committee on Ship Systems and Equipment Dominguez took the opportunity to repeat that without exception freedom of navigation must be respected.

US unlikely to increase tariffs on South Korea, Seoul official says

South Korea's Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan on Sunday said the U.S. is unlikely to slap higher tariffs on South Korea should the Korean parliament move swiftly to implement investment legislation sought by the U.S. next week as scheduled.

Seoul has been in talks with Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to hike tariffs on goods imported from South Korea to 25%, blaming a delay in the Asian ally's enactment of commitments to invest $350 billion in the U.S. as agreed in a trade deal last year.

CMA CGM, SIPG advance low carbon shipping

CMA CGM Group and SIPG Energy have completed the first biomethanol bunkering of the 13,000 TEU dual‑fuel containership CMA CGM OSMIUM at Yangshan Port’s Shengdong Terminal.

The vessel will soon operate on the M2X service linking Asia and Mexico.

The bunkering operation involved 3,643 tonnes of biomethanol sourced from suppliers including Shanghai Electric Group in Taonan, Jilin province, marking the largest single biomethanol bunkering ever completed at a Chinese port.