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Current Affairs

Delays, rising costs hit Asia’s trade as Gulf crisis spills beyond oil

Malaysia’s busiest container port has started refusing Middle East-bound cargo unless shipping lines can guarantee prompt pickup, in one of the clearest signs yet that…

By Samantha Johnson / April 20, 2026
Malaysia’s busiest container port has started refusing Middle East-bound cargo unless shipping lines can guarantee prompt pickup, in one of the clearest signs yet that the Gulf crisis is working its way past oil and into the everyday trade that moves across Asia.

Longer transit times, missed sailings and sharply higher insurance premiums are now rippling across the region’s logistics chain, with wine, spirits and other time-sensitive goods acting as an early indicator of disruption that analysts say will eventually push up prices on shop shelves and restaurant tables.

The Strait of Hormuz has been largely shut since late February, when the US and Israeli war on Iran triggered a blockade that brought shipping through the waterway to a near standstill.

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The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman is the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf and normally carries about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil, along with a fifth of its liquefied natural gas.

A brief reopening earlier this month collapsed on Saturday, when Iran re-closed the strait in response to a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

A tanker sits anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, on Saturday. A brief reopening earlier this month collapsed when Iran re-closed the strait. Photo: AP
A tanker sits anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, on Saturday. A brief reopening earlier this month collapsed when Iran re-closed the strait. Photo: AP

The strain is already visible at the logistics level.

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