Shipping lines stop entering Red Sea after attacks

The world’s major shipping lines have both suspended sailings that would pass though the strait at the south end of the Red Sea.

The screen capture from Vesselfinder.com shows ships in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on December 18, 2023. Yellow triangles represent cargo ships, orange triangles are tankers.

Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, MSC and CMA CGM all announced they were suspending transits for vessels bound for the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal to pause their journey until further notice. Maersk made the announcement on Friday, followed closely by the other lines.

Maersk said in a customer bulletin that the decision was made following a near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar on December 14, 2023, and yet another attack on a container vessel the following day. Crisis24, a security monitoring service, said the attackers launched a ballistic missile, which narrowly missed the ship.

MSC made the announcement after one of its ships was attacked in the Red Sea.

Iranian-backed Houthi militants from Yemen have been firing rockets at and attacking ships it says are bound for Israel.

According to Crisis24, on December 15th cargo vessel MSC Al Jasrah was hit by a projectile launched from Al-Houthi-controlled territory, causing a fire on the vessel’s deck. A later attempt to target Al Jasrah reportedly struck the nearby MSC Palatium III, with a third projectile missing both vessels.

Maersk said it is monitoring the situation and “retrieving all available intelligence” on the security situation in the area. “Ensuring the safety of our employees is of the utmost importance and our number one priority in handling this challenging situation. We are also committed to ensuring the stability of our customers’ supply chains, and we are working closely with our logistics teams and taking the necessary steps to minimize the impact on customers,” the shipping line said.

Maersk moves almost 15 percent of the world’s trade goods. Hapag Lloyd moves about seven percent.

About 30 percent of global trade in containers move through the Suez Canal and Red Sea. The Strait of Bab al-Mandab is a choke point at the south of the Red Sea where ships pass to and from the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian Sea.

Attacks on ships have been ongoing since the third week of November.