IN SHORT: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and persistent security threats in the Red Sea have forced global shipping giants MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Cosco to reroute vessels around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, turning the continent’s coastline into the world’s primary maritime trade corridor. Africa’s ports are the direct commercial beneficiaries: Tanger Med handled 11 million containers in 2025, up 8.4%; Kenya’s Lamu port received 74 vessels in the first two and a half months of 2026, a third of all vessels since it opened in 2021; and Mombasa and Dar es Salaam are handling record transshipment volumes. Egypt is the primary loser, having already lost $7 billion in Suez Canal toll revenues in 2024.
Africa has become the pivot of global trade. The simultaneous closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthi-driven insecurity in the Red Sea have ended two and a half years of provisional rerouting decisions and converted the Cape of Good Hope route into the permanent primary corridor for the world’s most important east-west shipping lanes, creating a structural shift in maritime logistics that benefits African ports in ways that may outlast the conflicts that caused it.
The full AFP analysis of the rerouting, confirmed by multiple major carriers and port authorities in May 2026, documents a systematic change in global shipping that is more than a temporary detour: it is a structural reorganisation of how manufactured goods, energy and raw materials move between Asia, Europe and the Americas.
- The scale of the rerouting is total. MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Cosco, which together control more than 60% of global container capacity, have all redirected vessels away from both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea route to the Suez Canal. Ships now follow Africa’s eastern coast south to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa before heading north toward Europe, adding approximately two weeks to transit times but eliminating exposure to Iranian naval action, Houthi drone attacks and the diplomatic uncertainty of the ceasefire negotiations that have repeatedly stalled since March. Carrier surcharges on impacted routes have risen to $1,500-$3,300 per standard container, with specialised equipment fees reaching $4,000.
- Kenya’s Lamu port is the most dramatic example of the boom. The facility, which opened in 2021 with three of its planned 32 berths completed, received 74 vessels in the first two and a half months of 2026. That is approximately one-third of all vessel calls since the port opened, compressed into ten weeks. The port received just two container ships in the entire first quarter of 2025. KPA Managing Director Capt. William Ruto confirmed the change directly: “We are experiencing a lot of traffic, more so transshipment, in Lamu and Mombasa.” Lamu’s position at the head of the LAPSSET corridor, connecting Kenya to Ethiopia and South Sudan, gives it strategic significance as a gateway for the Horn of Africa hinterland.
- Mombasa and Dar es Salaam are competing intensely for the same landlocked markets: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC and eastern Zambia all import through one or both ports. Container dwell times at Mombasa have been cut to approximately 4.5 days as KPA upgrades its Terminal Operating System and automates port gates. Dar es Salaam has deployed an AI-powered Tanzania Electronic Single Window System that has reduced cargo turnaround from as long as 30 days to 36-48 hours following a DP World partnership. The AfDB approved a $696 million partial credit guarantee in 2024 to unlock $3.9 billion for the Central Corridor Standard Gauge Railway connecting Tanzania to Burundi and the DRC. Kenya secured $239 million to complete the Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali road network, targeting a reduction in Mombasa-Kigali transit times from 7-10 days to 5-6 days.
- Tanger Med in Morocco is the primary winner among the continent’s northern ports. The Tanger Med Port Authority confirmed handling 11 million standard containers in 2025, up 8.4% year on year, as vessels rerouting from the Red Sea and Suez choose Morocco’s deepwater port as their European-bound transshipment hub. The upcoming Nador West Med port, opening Q4 2026 with initial capacity of 5 million TEU, will add further transshipment capacity precisely as the rerouting demand is at its peak.
- South Africa’s role is primarily as a bunkering and refuelling hub rather than a cargo destination. Ships transiting the Cape of Good Hope require refuelling stops, and South African ports at Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth are providing bunkering services, anchorages and ship-to-ship transfer facilities at volumes not seen since the pre-Suez Canal era. The additional commercial activity represents significant revenue for South African port operators at a moment when the country’s logistics system is recovering from years of Transnet underperformance.
- Egypt is the primary casualty. Suez Canal toll revenues are among the Egyptian state’s most important income sources, providing approximately $10 billion annually in normal conditions. CyclOpe, the specialist commodities publication, estimated Egypt lost $7 billion in canal revenue in 2024, a decline of more than 60% from 2023 levels. In 2026, with the Hormuz closure compounding the Red Sea insecurity, the revenue loss is expected to be proportionally larger. The Egyptian government has been managing its IMF programme with reduced canal revenues as a permanent fixture of its fiscal planning rather than a temporary disruption.
- The structural question is what happens when, and if, the Strait of Hormuz reopens. IEA analysis released this week confirmed that global shipping patterns have been disrupted to a degree that will not immediately normalise even if Hormuz reopens: backlogged cargo, mine-clearing requirements, damaged regional infrastructure and fleet repositioning all mean that full pre-conflict shipping patterns would take months to restore. Some maritime analysts argue that even post-resolution, African port investment will have permanently raised their competitiveness relative to their pre-crisis position.
The CMA CGM commitment to invest $700 million to modernise the terminal at Kenya’s Mombasa port, announced at the Africa Forward Summit on May 11, is the most commercially significant confirmation of the strategic shift. CMA CGM is not investing $700 million in Mombasa as a goodwill gesture. It is investing because its fleet routing decisions have made Mombasa a permanent fixture in its operational logistics.
The Bigger Picture: Africa’s ports have spent 30 years being told they were too inefficient, too slow and too peripheral to compete with Asian or European hubs for meaningful global shipping volumes. Two geopolitical crises in three years have rendered that assessment obsolete. The Houthi Red Sea attacks that began in late 2023 and the Hormuz closure that began in March 2026 have together redirected the world’s most important container shipping routes through African waters. The continent’s ports did not ask for this opportunity. But the ones that have invested in efficiency, technology and capacity are now capturing it. The ones that have not are watching the vessels pass.
Source: AFP via Milli Chronicle / Energy Capital Power / InonAfrica / Morocco World News, May 2026
