Dire straits: The handful of marine choke points holding Europe’s economy hostage in International Shipping News 24/03/2026 From the Persian Gulf to the English Channel, a small number of narrow waterways carry the vast bulk of what Europeans eat, buy, and heat their homes with. When one of them is threatened the consequences ripple everywhere. When Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed after US-Israeli air strikes and began attacking commercial ships attempting to pass through, the effects were felt almost immediately. Not just in the Gulf, but in European homes and businesses thousands of kilometres away. The blockade severely disrupted one of the world’s most critical shipping routes for oil, gas and chemicals, triggering a sharp energy price shock across Europe. Brent crude surged towards $100 (€86) per barrel, and Europe’s wholesale gas benchmark jumped. For ordinary consumers, that translates directly into higher petrol prices, heftier heating bills and a fresh wave of inflation at a time when many households are already stretched. The impact does not stop at energy. Around a third of global seaborne fertiliser trade passes through Hormuz, an essential supply that keeps European farms productive. Fertiliser shortages are now expected to push food prices higher still, adding another layer of pressure on European consumers. This crisis is another reminder of a structural vulnerability that experts have long warned about: Europe’s enormous economy largely depends on a handful of narrow sea passages that it neither controls nor, in many cases, can easily bypass. Europe’s maritime choke points The European Union operates the world’s largest fleet, accounting for more than one-third of global shipping tonnage. EU ports handle more than 3.4 billion tonnes of goods every year – roughly 74 per cent of everything that enters or leaves the bloc. Almost all of that trade flows, at some point, through one of a handful of strategic straits. Any disruption within them – whether caused by conflict, accident or political pressure – has an outsized impact on Europe’s commerce. The Strait of Hormuz Widely regarded as the world’s most critical energy choke point, Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Before the current crisis, around 20 million barrels of oil passed through it every day – roughly 25 per cent of all seaborne oil trade. It is also the exit route for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar, which supplies around 13 per cent of European LNG imports. The Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb strait The Suez Canal, which saves ships a 10,000-kilometre detour around Africa, demonstrated its fragility in March 2021 when the container ship Ever Given ran aground after high winds pushed it sideways. For six days, an estimated $10 billion (€8.6 billion) in trade was frozen every single day, as hundreds of vessels carrying livestock, furniture and car parts were left waiting. But the canal itself depends on traffic passing safely through Bab el-Mandeb, the so-called “Gate of Tears” at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, which controls around 12% of total global seaborne trade. Between 2023-2025, Houthi rebels in Yemen launched waves of drone and missile attacks on commercial vessels, targeting ships with perceived links to Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. The impact was severe. Major shipping firms suspended Red Sea transits, container traffic through Suez fell sharply, and freight rates on the Shanghai-Rotterdam r