Suez crisis creates winners and losers in the global supply chain

The Greek shipowning community, which controls more than a fifth of the world’s ocean-going merchant fleet and more than half of the EU fleet, is poised for a potential bonanza in rates.

Piraeus, Greece – For someone who was losing $30,000 a day, Greek shipowner Yiorgos Gourdomihalis sounds very sanguine. Hours before the Suez Canal shut down last week when one of the world’s largest container ships became wedged in the globally crucial waterway, the CEO of Phoenix Shipping and Trading had clinched a lucrative deal. The so-called time charter – an agreement between a shipowner and a charterer who wants to use a cargo ship for a specified period – would have made his company nearly half a million dollars. But the deal fell through when the 400-metre (1,312-foot) Ever Given ran aground on March 23 while entering the canal from the Red Sea, blocking hundreds of ships at either end of the waterway that carries an estimated 12 percent of the world’s trade.