Red Sea crisis boosts shipping costs, delays – and inflation worries

The Maersk Sentosa container ship sails southbound to exit the Suez Canal in Suez, Egypt, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. Stringer | Bloomberg | Getty Images Attacks on ships in the Red Sea continue to push ocean freight rates higher, triggering warnings of inflation and delayed goods. To avoid strikes by Iran-backed Houthi militants based in Yemen, carriers have already diverted more than $200 billion in trade over the past several weeks away from the crucial Middle East trade route, which, along with the Suez Canal, connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. This has created a multiple-front storm for global trade, according…