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Knowledge Nugget: Red Sea shipping route and Suez canal — What you must know for UPSC Exam
Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here's your knowledge nugget for today on Red Sea shipping route and Suez canal.
(Relevance: Understanding the geopolitical, economic, and strategic importance of the Red Sea shipping route and Suez Canal is crucial for the UPSC CSE, as it highlights international trade routes and global shipping dynamics, which are key for all stages of the examination, including prelims, mains, and interviews.)
Just as global shipping lines and traders had started to breathe a sigh of relief from elevated freight rates, with vessels returning to the crucial Red Sea route from the longer Cape of Good Hope passage, a conflict between two major West Asian powers — Iran and Israel — has reignited fears of surging oil prices and more trade disruptions.
Signs of a sustained escalation emerged after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said strikes targeting military and nuclear sites across Iran would continue 'for as many days as it takes'. Experts warn that Iran may respond by closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz . In this context, let's know about the Red Sea route, its significance for global trade and Suez Canal,
1. The nearly 2,000-km Red Sea connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the narrow Suez Canal. Before the Suez Canal's construction, ships had to go around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to travel between Europe and Asia.
2. The Suez Canal is one of the world's busiest waterways. It was officially opened to ships on November 17, 1869.
3. The 193-km artificial waterway that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through the Isthmus of Suez cut down the sea route from Asia to Europe by up to 7,000 km by negating the need for ships to travel around the southern tip of Africa to traverse between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
1. A trade route through Suez connecting Europe and Asia can be traced to antiquity. There is some evidence of a canal being constructed in the region during the reign of Pharaoh Senausret III, who ruled in the second millennium BCE.
2. But the idea for the modern-day canal can be traced to the eighteenth century, during the peak of European colonial expansion. In 1799, Napoleon's efforts to build a canal were thwarted by inaccurate measurements.
3. It was French diplomat and engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose efforts to win over the support of the Egyptian viceroy Sai'id Pasha for support for the canal's construction that eventually bore fruit. In 1858, the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was tasked to construct and operate the canal for 99 years, after which rights would be handed to the Egyptian government.
4. After more than ten years of construction, which claimed thousands of lives and was faced with many obstacles including crippling financial difficulties, the canal was opened for international navigation in 1869.
5. Upon its construction, the Suez Canal became the lifeline for all trade between the East and the West.
1. The Suez Canal accounts for nearly 12-15 per cent of global trade, according to IMF data. It is also a key passage for 8-9 per cent of global energy flows.
2. As of May 11, 2025, Suez Canal's daily transit trade volume (TTV) stood at 484,137 mt, compared with 1,349,086 mt a year ago, shows data from PortWatch, a live conflict tracker maintained by the IMF and Oxford University. TTV denotes the total volume of goods transported through a shipping route.
3. Like various other countries, India was also heavily reliant on the Red Sea shipping route for exports to Europe, with nearly 80 per cent of the volumes going through the Suez Canal. The shifting of trade flows from the Red Sea to the route around Africa have evidently impacted Indian exporters by denting their margins as they now have to contend with higher freight rates for exports to Europe and beyond. With much of India's trade dependent on overseas shippers and foreign-flagged commercial vessels, there is little the country can do in the short term to shield itself from the impact of the Red Sea crisis.
1. Although the Suez Canal is one of the world's busiest waterways, it also has its issues. Such as, the 193 km-long, 205 m-wide, and 24 m-deep Suez Canal is the world's biggest shipping bottleneck. Despite being widened and deepened over the years, it remains perennially congested, with long queues at either end. In March 2021, the mammoth cargo ship Ever Given got stuck in the canal, blocking passage for more than a week.
2. The Suez Canal was also the focal point of both the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars and was shut from 1967 to 75.
1. Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama. It is one of the two most strategically important artificial waterways in the world, alongside the Suez Canal. For ships traveling between the east and west coasts of the United States, the canal reduces the journey by 8,000 nautical miles, avoiding the dangerous passage around Cape Horn.
2. The Panama Canal is more than just a channel of water that links two larger bodies; it is a complex, highly engineered system that incorporates locks and elevators to transport ships from one end to the other. This design is necessary because the two oceans connected by the canal are not at the same elevation, with the Pacific Ocean being slightly higher than the Atlantic.
3. The Panama Canal needs massive amounts of fresh water to facilitate the passage of ships using this system of locks. Most of this water is supplied from Lake Gatun using the force of gravity (no pumps are needed).
1. The strait lies between Oman and Iran. It links the Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arabian Sea beyond.
2. It is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point, with the shipping lane just two miles (three km) wide in either direction.
3. It is key passage through which 20–25 per cent of global oil supply transits, as well as a critical corridor for LNG shipments from Qatar and the UAE. Qatar, notably, is among the top LNG suppliers to India.
(1) The Great Bitter Lake is associated with:
(a) Panama Canal
(b) Black Sea
(c) Pacific Ocean
(d) Suez Canal
(2) Which of the following statements are correct about the Panama Canal?
1. It saves approximately 12,600 km in a trip between New York and San Francisco.
2. Lake Superior acts as the artificial reservoir of the Panama Canal system.
3. The Panama Canal system uses a system of locks and elevators to take ships from one end to the other.
4. The canal connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2, 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 3 and 4 only
(d) 2 and 3 only
(Sources: Renewed Iran–Israel conflict threatens Red Sea shipping route recovery, impact India trade, Explained: History of Suez Canal, its economic importance, Knowledge nugget of the day: Panama Canal)
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Roshni Yadav is a Deputy Copy Editor with The Indian Express. She is an alumna of the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she pursued her graduation and post-graduation in Political Science. She has over five years of work experience in ed-tech and media. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. Her interests lie in national and international affairs, governance, economy, and social issues. You can contact her via email: ... Read More
