Container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd expressed on Monday its fear that the ship shipping crisis occurring in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden will expand to include the Mediterranean, explaining that it continues to avoid the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The German shipping giant said that the “danger zone” associated with possible attacks by the Yemeni Houthi group has not extended to the Mediterranean Sea yet.
The company added in comments via email, “What we see is that the scope of attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is expanding more and more… and that is why we completely avoid this region.”
Earlier today, Hapag-Lloyd’s largest competitor, the Danish company Maersk, said that the crisis of container shipping traffic in the Red Sea is worsening, and the sector’s carrying capacity between the Far East and Europe is expected to shrink between 15 and 20% in the second quarter of this year.
The Houthis target, with missiles and drones, cargo ships in the Red Sea that are owned or operated by Israeli companies, or that transport goods to and from Israel, which later expanded to include American and British ships.
The group says that its operations come in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which has been exposed to an Israeli war with American support since October 7, 2023, which caused the death of about 35,000 Palestinians and the wounding of about 78,000 others, most of whom are children and women.
Reroute
Maersk and its competitors have diverted ships to the Cape of Good Hope route, the southernmost point of the African continent, since last December to avoid Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which led to higher shipping prices due to longer sailing periods.
The company, which is seen as a barometer of global trade, said last week that the shipping crisis caused by the attacks was expected to continue until at least the end of the year.
“The danger zone has expanded, and attacks reach farther out to sea,” Maersk said in an advisory note to clients on Monday.
“This forced our ships to extend their journeys further, which has increased the time and costs of delivering goods to their destination at the present time,” she added.
The crisis has caused bottlenecks and a so-called ship backlog, with several ships arriving at the port at the same time, in addition to a lack of equipment and capacity.
“We are doing everything we can to enhance confidence, by sailing faster and increasing capacity,” Maersk said, adding that it has so far chartered more than 125,000 additional containers.
The company continued, “We have increased capacity as much as possible, in line with the needs of our customers.”
According to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates, global supply lines have been affected since mid-November by Houthi militant attacks in the Red Sea, which led to a decrease in ship transit through the Suez Canal by 80%.
