Several companies have joined the list of those diverting to the Cape of Good Hope route, the southernmost tip of the continent of Africa, in order to avoid passing through the Red Sea. The Yemeni Houthi group announced the targeting of ships heading to Israel through the Bab al-Mandab Strait in an effort to pressure Tel Aviv to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which is being subjected to aggression and siege. continuous.
The Taiwanese container shipping company Evergreen decided on Monday to temporarily stop accepting Israeli goods with immediate effect, and issued instructions to its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea until further notice.
until a further notice
Evergreen said, in a statement, that ships in the regional services of the Red Sea ports will sail to nearby safe waters and await further notice, at a time when container ships scheduled to pass through the Red Sea will be redirected around the Cape of Good Hope to continue their trips to the ports.
For its part, the Taiwanese shipping company Yang Ming said today that it will divert its ships sailing through the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope during the next two weeks in light of the escalation of attacks on ships.
“For our ships that are currently sailing or are likely to sail through a high-risk maritime area in the next two weeks, it has been decided to immediately divert to the Cape of Good Hope or wait in a safe place,” it added in a notice to customers.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation in the high-risk area, and will make immediate adaptive adjustments regarding our vessels and routes in response to changes in the situation, ensuring transportation safety,” she said.
The London marine insurance market expanded the scope of the area it considers high-risk in the Red Sea amid the escalation of attacks on commercial ships there, according to a statement issued today.
The directives of the Joint War Committee, which includes trade union members from the Lloyd’s Market Association and representatives from the London Insurers Market, are closely followed and influence companies’ considerations of insurance premiums and fees.
The statement added that the Joint War Committee expanded the high-risk zone to 18 degrees north from 15 degrees north previously.
British Petroleum
This coincides with a similar decision by the British oil company British Petroleum (BP) to suspend all movement of its tankers through the Red Sea for the same reason.
In this context, the Front Line oil tanker group, based in Norway, said that its ships will avoid passing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the coming period.
Reuters quoted the company’s CEO, Larsh Barchta, as saying that insurance premiums against war risks are naturally rising, but with ships redirected to a route that passes around Africa, shipping supplies will become less because shipments sail for a longer period. This would put prices under strong upward pressure.
55 ships diverted to the Cape of Good Hope route around the continent of Africa to avoid passing through the Red Sea during the period from last November 19 to yesterday, Sunday, after the Houthi group in Yemen increased attacks on ships heading to Israel, according to the head of the Suez Canal Authority. Osama Rabei yesterday.
kickoff
On November 19, the Houthi group announced the seizure of the “Galaxy Leader” cargo ship owned by an Israeli businessman in the Red Sea, and taking it to the Yemeni coast.
The group has vowed on more than one occasion to target ships owned or operated by Israeli companies “in solidarity with Palestine,” against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, calling on countries to withdraw their citizens working on the crews of these ships.
The attacks continued on ships that the group says are linked to Israel, prompting several container shipping companies to suspend their trips through the Red Sea until further notice.
The most prominent of these companies are 3 that are classified as the largest container shipping companies in the world, which are “MSC”, “AP Moller-Maersk” and “CMA-CGM”.
The German shipping company “Hapag-Lloyd” announced last Friday that it was studying whether to stop sailing through the Red Sea, hours after it was reported that one of its ships had been attacked near Yemen.