The new Suez crisis will boost inflation

The blockage of the Suez Canal has sent container shipping prices soaring and put global supply chains under unprecedented stress.

Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez Canal
The Ever Given, operated by Evergreen Marine, halted traffic for almost a week
(Image credit: © DigitalGlobe/Getty Images)

The grounding of the Ever Given container ship halted traffic on the Suez Canal for almost a week before the vessel was finally freed on Monday.

The blockage resulted in vast maritime tailbacks as hundreds of container ships waited to pass between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, disrupting an estimated £7bn of trade in goods every day, according to shipping data from Lloyd’s List. Shipping line Maersk warned that knock-on congestion at ports could potentially take “months” to clear.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.