← HomeLogin
Iran war spreading economic damage far beyond oil and gas markets
~markets~news.business~warasiaeuropeiranusashippingtariffs
www.washingtonpost.com 3 weeks agoTildes

Summary

Just one week into the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran, the war’s economic casualties extend well beyond the oil and natural gas shipments that normally transit the Strait of Hormuz. The closure of several international airports in the conflict zone, including the world’s busiest in Dubai, idled nearly one-fifth of global airfreight capacity, interrupting shipments of consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals and precious metals.

But the pain is not being felt equally. The cost of shipping goods by air from Asia to Europe is up 45 percent since the war began, more than twice the increase for sending items from Asia to the United States, said Ryan Petersen, chief executive of Flexport, a freight forwarder and logistics company in San Francisco.

[...]

Air cargo thus far has been more heavily affected than seaborne shipments. Amid intense missile, drone and aircraft bombardments, several countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran closed their airspace. A limited number of flights from the region have resumed, meaning a sharp reduction in cargo capacity.

For each week that air shipments are suspended, cargo carriers will need at least a week-and-a-half to catch up, said Oscar de Bok, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding, which moves more than 2 million tons of airfreight annually.

[...]

The gap between available airfreight capacity and demand is leading to cargo backlogs in Southeast Asia and China, Stefan Paul, CEO of Kuehne + Nagel Management, a Swiss logistics giant, told investors on Tuesday. The emerging situation is “similar to the covid times,” he added.

[...]

Aircraft originating in China and other parts of north Asia must fly a “meticulous route” over nations such as Turkmenistan, threading the needle between the Iranian battlefield to the south and prohibited Russian airspace to the north, said Brian Bourke, chief commercial officer for SEKO Logistics in Chicago.

[...]

The near-blockage of Persian Gulf oil shipments is sending jet fuel prices soaring, which will only add to air cargo bills. One European gauge of jet fuel prices is up 72 percent since the war began, rapidly approaching its 2022 peak following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Spiking airfreight costs on the Asia-to-Europe route will act like “surge pricing on Uber,” drawing aircraft from other routes, such as Asia-to-U.S., and causing those prices to rise as well, Bourke said.

[...]

The freight market upheaval could be exacerbated by companies responding to changes in U.S. tariffs, which are temporarily lower following the Supreme Court ruling invalidating Trump’s emergency levies. Indian goods, for example, are now subject to a 10 percent tariff, down from as high as 50 percent before the court ruling.

Administration officials have said they intend to re-create the original tariff lineup as much as possible before the 10 percent global tariff expires in late July. In the meantime, U.S. importers have an incentive to rush Indian goods such as telecommunications gear and generic drugs into American ports. Any increase in demand for airfreight from New Delhi could run straight into airlines’ limited capacity, driving shipping costs higher, analysts said.

Farmers, meanwhile, will probably be among the first Americans to feel a financial jolt from the war. Three of the world’s top 10 producers of urea and anhydrous ammonia fertilizer are in the conflict zone: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran.