Shipping lines that its retail clients are battered by the coronavirus pandemic, lower sailing speeds and take longer routes across Africa, according to the firms and ship-tracking experts, reducing Suez canal passage costs.

Many also cut down on travel numbers and provide short-term storage for customers as the industry , which includes heavyweights such as Maersk, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd, faces its biggest downturn since the financial crisis of 2008.

Many manufacturers were forced to reduce or slow down new merchandise shipments. Civil unrest has compounded their problems in the United States by further clouding the prospect of a recovery in the world's largest retail sales market.

"What we are seeing is quite a mixed situation from cargo owners, some of which are resuming normal shipment of their cargoes, others are requesting routings via longer transit times," said Marcus Leaver, chief operating officer of sea freight at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

Maritime Business World