Several companies have joined the list of those diverted to the Cape of Good Hope route, the southern tip of the African continent, to avoid crossing the Red Sea. Bab al-Mandab Strait in an effort to pressure Tel Aviv to bring humanitarian aid into the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip.
Taiwanese container shipping company Evergreen decided on Monday to immediately stop temporarily accepting Israeli goods, and issued instructions to its container ships to stop sailing through the Red Sea until further notice.
Until further notice
Vessels on regional services to Red Sea ports will proceed to nearby safe waters pending further notice, while container vessels scheduled to transit the Red Sea will be diverted around the Cape of Good, Evergreen said in a statement. I hope their visits to the ports continue.
For its part, Taiwanese shipping company Yang Ming said today it would divert its Red Sea vessels to the Port of Good Faith in the next two weeks in light of increasing attacks on ships.
“For our vessels currently sailing or likely to sail in high-risk waters in the next two weeks, the decision has been made to immediately divert to the Cape of Good Hope or wait in a safer location,” it added. A notice to customers.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation in the high-risk area and make immediate adaptive changes regarding our vessels and routes in response to changes in the situation, ensuring traffic safety,” he said.
The London marine insurance market has expanded its coverage to an area it considers high risk amid a rise in attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea, according to a report published today.
The directives of the Joint War Committee, made up of trade union members of the Lloyd’s Market Association and representatives of the London Insurers’ Market, are closely followed and influence the companies’ consideration of insurance premiums and charges.
The joint battle group has expanded the high-risk zone from 15 degrees north to 18 degrees north earlier, the report added.
British Petroleum
This coincides with a similar decision by British oil major British Petroleum (BP) to stop the movement of all its tankers through the Red Sea for the same reason.
In this case, Norway’s Front Line Oil Tanker Group has announced that its vessels will avoid transiting through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the near future.
Insurance premiums against war risks are naturally increasing, but as ships are diverted to routes around Africa, shipping supplies will be limited because shipments will travel longer, Reuters quoted CEO Larsch Barchda as saying. This will put prices under strong upward pressure.
Between November 19 and last Sunday, 55 ships were diverted to the Cape of Good Hope route around the African continent to avoid crossing the Red Sea, after the Houthi group in Yemen stepped up attacks on ships bound for Israel. Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabe yesterday.
Kickoff
On November 19, the Houthi group announced that it had seized the “Galaxy Leader” cargo ship owned by an Israeli businessman in the Red Sea and was taking it to the coast of Yemen.
In the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza, the group has repeatedly vowed to target ships owned or operated by Israeli companies “in solidarity with Palestine,” calling on countries to return their citizens working on these ships.
Attacks on ships the group says are linked to Israel have continued, prompting several container shipping companies to suspend their Red Sea voyages until further notice.
The most important of these companies are 3, which are classified as the largest container shipping companies in the world, namely “MSC”, “AP Moller-Maersk” and “CMA-CGM”.
German shipping company “Hapag-Lloyd” announced last Friday that it was investigating whether to stop sailing through the Red Sea, hours after one of its ships was reported to have been attacked near Yemen.
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