This week saw a sharp escalation of the security situation in the Bab-al-Mandeb strait off the coast of Yemen. Multiple vessels have now been attacked off the Yemeni coast by the Houthis resulting several major shipping lines placing their vessels on hold to not pass the Red Sea, rendering the Suez routing unavailable for an unknown period. While the impact of this will be on multiple trades, particularly troublesome is on the Far East to North America East Coast (NAEC) trade, as there has been a shift towards the Suez routing due to the drought in the Panama Canal, making a reversal to the Panama routing impossible. (....)