Military Ships in the Mediterranean

With everything going on in the Middle East and northern Africa the past few weeks, the concerns are continuing to become greater for the world’s shipping industry. Not only are the governments still going back and forth with rhetoric, but the deaths of Americans and nasty sentiments between nations has created an environment of mistrust. In fact, in the beginning of this month the US sent 2 war ships, destroyers off the coast of Libya with no specific orders but to stay there until told otherwise. That was in direct response to the assassination of the US Ambassador there, but what does that mean for the business relationships in this area? Obviously it is very volatile in this region which it has be on and off for decades. The problems are mostly political as a result of extremists, but we all know that this can easily become a difficult region for the shipping industry. With it being such a central shipping throughway for the area compiled with the Suez Canal, shippers need to beware. Once there are military ships, there can easily and quickly be further issues and with this type of crisis comes delays in shipping cargo containers as well as increases to international shipping costs. With the world economy struggling as it has been there is hope in the shipping industry that this unrest will dissipate and allow for easy international shipping. Unfortunately the Suez is a particularly hot spot for the region so freight forwarders and shipping lines are getting prepared for the worst.