The busy East-West shipping routes that transit through the Suez Canal are again in jeopardy, putting pricing pressure on goods, including PCs and components, as well as many other essential products and commodities. Yemen-based and Iran-backed Houthis are said to be targeting cargo ships they believe are on the way to Israel. The aggression is aimed at Israel-bound ships in a show of support to Hamas, say the Houthi perpetrators. However, there are multiple reports of ships with no links to Israel being targeted by drones and missiles. Tech publication TechPowerUp also reports that its sources in the Taiwan PC supply chain indicate that "products are on some of these ships that are now stuck waiting for naval escorts through the area."
According to the latest BBC analysis, “severe disruption” of global supply chains is expected due to the ongoing Red Sea attacks. Many of the world’s biggest shipping companies, like MSC, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, ICT, and Evergreen, are thus making plans to re-route or actively re-routing ships. Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea have steadily increased since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
