Suez Canal: traffic drops 90% after attacks in Yemen – 01/10/2024 – Market

Attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebel group on ships using the Suez Canal as a route caused a 90% reduction in maritime traffic in the region in the first week of January compared to the same period in 2022, according to research carried out by Clarksons, a maritime transport services company.

At the same time, the survey showed that the number of vessels that chose to travel between the Middle East and Europe via the Cape of Good Hope more than doubled within a two-week period.

The route takes around 12 days longer and involves going around Africa to the south. It avoids passing through the Suez Canal, where the Houthis have been attacking commercial vessels since the second half of November last year in protest against Israel due to the war against the terrorist group Hamas.

According to the research, 364 container ships, with a capacity for 4.2 million 20-foot containers (TEUs), chose the Cape of Good Hope route on January 9. On December 21, the number was 155 vessels, with a capacity of 1.9 million TEUs.

On the night of January 9, the day the data was compiled, the Houthi rebels launched one of their largest combined attacks on ships to date. US Central Command reported that US and UK warships and aircraft shot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and one ballistic missile.

No injuries or damage were reported in what the US said was the 26th attack on commercial ships in the Red Sea since November 19.

Some of the main maritime transport companies, such as Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, confirmed that the suspension of traffic through the Suez Canal is maintained and will continue with vessels traveling around the Cape of Good Hope.

The companies are also diverting some services between Asia and the U.S. East Coast that previously went through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Container ships are the main means of transporting manufactured and semi-finished goods around the world.

Stephen Gordon, head of research at Clarksons, said container ship arrivals in the Gulf of Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea had been at “very low levels” since mid- or late December.

“Container crossings [do Mar Vermelho] are remaining at low levels and crossings around the Cape are increasing,” Gordon said.

The accelerated diversions caused the Shanghai Container Freight Index — a measure of the costs of moving a single 40-foot container on a series of long-distance routes — on Jan. 5 to hit its highest rate since the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19.

The cost of shipping a container from Shanghai, China to Rotterdam, the Netherlands has increased from US$1,667 (as of December 23, 2023) to US$3,577 (as of January 5, 2024). A container going from Shanghai to Genoa also doubled in the same period from US$1,956 to US$4,178.

Shipping lines have increasingly abandoned Red Sea and Suez Canal routes since late November. They have been discouraged by missile attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea.

The number of vessels opting to leave the Suez Canal for the Cape of Good Hope has increased since December 30, when a ship operated by Denmark’s AP Møller-Maersk was attacked in the Red Sea. The attack shook shipping lines’ confidence that the U.S. Operation Prosperity Guardian, aimed at preventing Houthi attacks, would solve the problem.

“For cargo owners, this is adding time, cost and disruption,” said Simon Heaney, senior container research manager at London-based Drewry Shipping.