Yemeni Blockade Continues to Impact Israeli Economy
The Yemeni armed forces’ effective and stringent blockade on Israeli navigation in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean continues to cause significant losses for the Zionist enemy. Recent Hebrew reports confirm the ongoing escalation of the crisis in the automotive sector and the trade of electrical goods due to increased shipping costs and the inability to reach the ports of occupied Palestine. This situation is leading to a continuous rise in prices for consumers.
The Hebrew newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” published a report on Tuesday, confirming that in the period preceding the Passover holiday (which begins in mid-April), importers of electrical products are facing difficulties in stocking their warehouses. The products that do arrive are significantly more expensive than overseas prices, and electrical product chains and importers report ongoing difficulties with imports.
The report quoted the logistics company, Logistecar, a subsidiary of the Maman Group, which manages warehouses for many importers in the electricity sector. The company stated that “to date, 900 containers that were supposed to arrive in Israel in December and January have not arrived.” It noted that “each container ship arriving in Israel unloads about 50% of the containers ordered compared to the same period last year; therefore, it is impossible to fill the warehouses with stock for Passover.”
The company reported that there is currently a shortage of electric vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, blenders, screens, and dishwashers in Israel.
The report quoted Leron Katz, Deputy CEO of Business Development in the Electric Warehouse chain, saying, “We have a lot of delays, every shipment has become a world war to be delivered to stores or end customers, and there are almost no storage days in the warehouses.”
According to Katz, the delay is due to several reasons, including that “some ships coming from the East have canceled their arrival to Israel,” and those who do arrive in Israel do so via Cape of Good Hope and not via the Suez Canal, with routes changing frequently. In addition, customs have begun to pass every shipment through lengthy checks, which adds about ten additional days to the delay of containers that have already been at sea for two months.
He said that “in addition, European manufacturers, whose factories rely on spare parts coming from the East, are delayed in producing products, and as we approach Passover, we will see more shortages in stores.”
Katz explained that “at present, due to the increase in transportation costs, refrigerators will become more expensive, and their price at Passover will rise by about 250 shekels to 2000 shekels, depending on the size of the refrigerator.”
The report clarified that there are now huge gaps, reaching several times, in the prices of electrical products outside Israel and inside it.
According to the Hebrew economic site “Ice,” electrical product chains do not expect the import problems to be resolved.
In parallel, the economic newspaper “Calcalist” published a report on Monday, confirming the existence of a major crisis in the car trade due to the closure of the occupied port of Um Al-Rashrash (Eilat), which used to receive 50% of car imports to the entity.
The report said that “the last time a ship carrying cars entered the port of Eilat was on November 20, and not a single car was unloaded in the port of Eilat in January and February 2024, while only 91 cars were unloaded in the port of Ashdod.”
It explained that the number of cars that customs released in the enemy entity decreased by percentages approaching 30% during February and January compared to the previous months.
The report clarified that “the map of car imports to Israel via ports has completely changed; the largest part of the imports goes to Haifa, and the port of Ashdod rarely participates in car imports, and the port of Eilat is closed.”
The newspaper quoted the CEO of the port of Um Al-Rashrash (Eilat), Gideon Golber, saying that “the government asked to evacuate the port’s berths for the benefit of the goods that will arrive here in case of a war emergency in the north, we have prepared areas for that at a cost of millions of shekels, and this is a big loss for us.”
He said that “the road will not open until the end of the year.”
The report explained that “importing a vehicle from the East via Mediterranean ports is not easy or cheap; Chinese shipping companies’ ships arrive at European ports, for example in Greece and Turkey, and their cargo is unloaded and re-sailed on ships heading to Israel,” indicating that this method is costly.
The newspaper quoted an industry source saying, “The method of using two ships, one of which passes through the Suez Canal, increases the price of each car by hundreds of dollars, compared to shipping it directly to the port of Eilat. As for the journey across the Mediterranean Sea, it is a journey in which the car moves from one ship to another, and it is stored in a foreign port, and it is unloaded from the ship and loaded, and this costs a fortune.”
The report quoted a senior official in the industry saying, “There is a significant shortage of cars that will be noticed in the second half of the year; Israel had a maritime gateway through which 50% of the cars entered, and there is no alternative to that, no matter how many cars can be transported to the Mediterranean Sea.”
The official pointed out that the port of Haifa does not compensate for the shortage, and said, “Manufacturers from the East are reducing the range of supplies to Israel and importers, for their part, do not want to order when shipping is expensive.”
The report confirmed that “the Israeli car market is going through a complicated situation today, as the prices of new cars, especially electric ones, have become more expensive in the past January, and in the case of non-electric cars, the prices have become more expensive; due to the jump in transportation costs.”
He added that “in the coming months; due to the closure of the port of Eilat, the rate of arrival of cars will decrease more, according to sources in the car industry.”
He said, “In the car industry, the first half of the year is expected to be characterized by a decrease in sales after Passover, and this situation is likely to continue until the summer months, with the option to extend according to the security situation.”