Houthi attacks turn back the clock for shipping as costs pile up

Before this year, Tobias Kammann, a German container ship captain, had only once sailed around the southern tip of Africa, and the lack of other vessels in the little-trafficked waters made him feel very much alone.

But these days, there are so many ships there, he said, that "it's a bit like the autobahn."

To get from Asia to Europe and back, global shipping companies have for decades sailed through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. But a year ago, the Houthi insurgents in Yemen began targeting vessels in the Red Sea with drones and missiles, forcing shipping companies to divert their cargo around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip, a route that is some 3,500 nautical miles and 10 days longer.

Western-led naval fleets were sent to the Red Sea to quell the attacks, which the Iran-backed Houthis said were a response to Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza...