Houthis' July 20, 2026 ban and follow-up attacks disrupt Red Sea trade, raising freight and insurance costs

On July 20, 2026 the Houthis announced a ban on traffic to and from Saudi ports and, through July–August 2026, claimed and carried out attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb, prompting rerouting, higher freight and insurance risk premia and disruption to key import flows for Egypt, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

Security incidents and the Houthi ban increase transits' risk premia: insurers and charterers factor higher war-risk and rerouting costs into freight and hull cover, raising landed import prices and short-term trade bills. That can pressure FX reserves and imported inflation in Egypt, Djibouti–Ethiopia supply chains and widen short-dated sovereign/corporate spreads, depending on duration and scale of rerouting and insurance-price moves.

Monitor UKMTO/IMO incident advisories, Lloyd’s/Kpler transit counts and published war-risk insurance premia for Suez/Red Sea routes.