The Suez crisis has resulted in a +150% increase in the cost of transport of steel, as announced by Assofermet Acciai, The Italian Association of Trade, Distribution and pre-processing of steels, scrap, metals and hardware, specifying that for steel, which traditionally passed through the Red Sea, the average price of container ship transport is increased from $1,200 per TEU in December 2023 to around $3,000 dollars per TEU container, type of container that can contain about 25 tons of steel. Highlighting that all the major container shipping companies continue to choose to bypass Suez via the Cape of Good Hope, Assofermet Acciai has specified that, after the speculations of the month of January which had led to an increase in the cost of transport by +500% compared to December values, reaching a peak of $5,300 per TEU, during the month of February the cost has steadily decreased.

"It was above all - explained Gian Pietro Alberti, member of the Technical Committee of Assofermet Acciai - the speculative effect of transport companies, today significantly reduced, to justify the increases seen for the throughout the first month of the year. The situation - he stressed Alberti - however, continues to be highly volatile and unpredictable, because freight prices change and make it impossible to hypothesize the evolution of the costs from one day to the next. On a general level, one of the elements justifying the increases is that a A container ship's day at sea has a cost ranging from $150,000 to $200,000 (typical cost of a mega-ship container ship, which carries between 10,000 and 24,000 containers). In addition to the effect on prices, there is an increase in transport times: to transport steel from non-EU countries in the Far East are 15 to 25 days longer than the 30 days before the crisis began."

"The situation is very different," Alberti continued, "for the breakbulk vessels, i.e. vessels carrying steel in bulk and not in containers. Generally, for these ships it continues to it would be more convenient to go through Suez." Alberti has recalled that the main costs of the Red Sea for the Extreme East-Mediterranean Sea are the toll due to the authority Egypt for the transit through the canal and the increase in the premium insurance: indicatively, for a ship of 50,000 tons of The toll is around $190,000 per and the insurance premium is about $150,000 for each ship. However, for breakbulk vessels, switch from the Cape of Good Hope would cost even more.

Assofermet Acciai also recalled that most of the of steel exported to Italy and Europe passes through the through the Suez Canal and that in the course of 2023, in line with previous years, some of the countries that exported the most steel in Italy and the EU were India, China, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, all countries that have traditionally they were passing through the Red Sea. Overall, in 2023 they have exported 5.48 million tonnes of steel to Italy, i.e. 73.8% of the total steel imported into Italy from non-EU (7.42 million tonnes). The association specified whereas a similar trend is valid for the entire European Union: from the same six countries came 16.14 million tons on 29.3 million total global imports (data Eurometal-Assofermet).

With 1.3 million tonnes, in particular, last year it was India is the country to have exported the most steel to Italy, followed by China with 1.1 million tonnes. Altogether In 2023 there was a surge of +62% compared to 2022: two years ago, the six countries analysed exported 3.3 million euros to Italy. million tons of steel.