According to a notice sent to clients by Maersk, the second-largest ocean carrier, “the risk zone has expanded,” and the stress was leading to additional delays and increased expenses.

The Red Sea is a route that cargo ships from Asia must take in order to access the Suez Canal, and the Houthis have been assaulting ships there since late last year. Ocean carriers are now compelled to travel a somewhat longer path to Europe rather than across the water.

Shipping companies have forced to add extra vessels because it takes longer to ship around Africa in order to guarantee that their cargo can be delivered on schedule and without reducing capacity.

The challenges have been exacerbated by the threat to vessels in the Indian Ocean. “This has forced our vessels to lengthen their journey further, resulting in additional time and costs to get your cargo to its destination for the time being,” Maersk added.

According to the company’s estimate, adding more ships and equipment to the Asia-to-Europe route would cause the industry’s capacity to drop by 15% to 20% in the three months leading up to the end of June.

Nevertheless, because shipping companies have placed numerous orders for new ships recently, they have an abundance of available capacity.

Maersk announced on Monday that due to increased costs incurred by the shipping line, which include a 40% rise in fuel use per route, consumers may anticipate seeing additional surcharges on shipping invoices.

According to Freightos, a digital shipping marketplace, the price of shipping a container from Asia to a port in northern Europe was $3,550 last week. This is significantly less than the rates that rose above $14,000 when global shipping became congested during the coronavirus pandemic, and it is down from a recent high of $5,492 in January.

Iran-backed Houthis claim that their attacks are a reaction to Israel’s conflict in the Gaza Strip.