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More attacks in the Red Sea: British warship HMS Diamond downed a Houthi drone targeting the vessel on Saturday, a day after a Houthi-launched missile hit Marshall-flagged Marlin Luanda in the Gulf of Aden while transiting the Red Sea, Reuters reports, citing British officials. The warship destroyed the drone, with no injuries to crew or damage to the vessel, the newswire cited the UK’s Minister of Defence as saying yesterday.
The Marlin Luanda attack set fire to one of the vessel’s cargo tanks with no harm caused to crew, according to a statement by the vessel’s operator, multinational commodities trader Trafigura. Trafigura has said that it will assess the risks involved in future Red Sea transits following the incident, adding that it has no vessels currently operating in the region, according to an update to the company’s statement.
US strikes back: Hours after the attack on the fuel tanker, the US Navy launched a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile being prepped for launch in the Red Sea area, US Centcom said on X. The US Navy assessed that the missile presented an “imminent threat” to merchant shipping and US naval vessels in the region and destroyed the missile site in “self-defense,” Centcom said. The US and UK also launched an additional two airstrikes on Yemen’s main oil export terminal — Ras Issa Port, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing Houthi Al-Masira television as saying.
Chinese firms have been betting on Houthi promises: A number of smaller Chinese shipping lines have been flocking to fill the vacuum of ships navigating the Red Sea route under their “perceived immunity” from Houthi missiles, The Financial Times reported on Thursday. One of the opportunistic shipping companies emphasizes on its website that its ships prominently display the Chinese flag and sail though the Red Sea with Chinese navy escorts, the salmon-colored paper adds.
Chinese investments in Israel’s ports represent a “strategic risk”: Bayport terminal at Israel’s Haifa port, run by China’s Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), represents a “strategic risk” to Israel, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a 17 January letter written by Ashdod port chairman Shaul Schneider it has seen. Israel’s state-owned Ashdod Port will stop information sharing with SIPG Bayport terminal and will no longer coordinate on security threats, Schneider is cited as stating. Israel’s shipping and ports authority chief rebuffed the letter, stating that its claims were “inaccurate to the point of being wrong,” and warned of their implications for the country’s political and trade relations, the newswire said. SIPG countered that their activities were in accordance with Israeli law.
The conflict between the two ports has been aggravated by a shift in market share since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, with cargoes diverted northward away from Ashdod — Israel’s last state-owned port — and SIPG’s Haifa terminal seeing a boost in volumes, the newswire writes. Chinese carriers OOCL and COSCO also stopped their operations in Israel citing Houthi-led attacks, further inflaming tensions.
Egypt is still facing trouble: Suez Canal Authority (SCA) revenues will be “severely affected”this year if commercial vessels continue to divert their routes from the waterway, SCA boss Osama Rabie told Asharq Business on Thursday. The Houthi attacks have increased costs and risks for maritime lines and pushed many companies to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope or even look to air freight and overland routes as alternatives.
By the numbers: Suez Canal receipts have fallen 44% y-o-y to USD 802 mn in January 2024, Rabie told the news outlet. Egypt has lost about USD 150 mn in Suez Canal revenues due to ongoing Red Sea disruptions, according to estimates shared by Bloomberg’s chief emerging markets economist Ziad Daoud earlier in the month.
A warning from Deutsche Bank: Egypt could lose around USD 2 bn in revenues over a three-month period if disruption in the Red Sea leads to ins. premiums rising to “unsustainable levels” that it effectively stops Suez Canal traffic, the multinational lender warned in a research note seen by Enterprise. However, Deutsche Bank put the risk of a full closure of the channel as “unlikely” and instead predicted that “Egypt is likely to witness a partial — but not complete — loss in its revenue stream from the Suez Canal.”
And disruptions continue to delay LNG supplies from Qatar: Italian energy firm Edison is witnessing delays to liquified natural gas (LNG) supplies from Qatar, on the back of Red Sea disruptions, the firm’s CEO is cited by Reuters as saying on Thursday. A shipment scheduled to arrive in Italy in early February will arrive some two weeks late, he explained. “For now this has happened to one cargo,” Monti said, adding that his firm is closely following developments in the Red Sea.
Aramex is seeking alternative routes:Aramex Freight Services will be loading shipments from Asia onto its fleet of trucks in Dubai and Dammam in KSA, while doing the same for shipments from Europe at Port Said in Egypt, in a bid to accommodate reshuffles to sea freight routes due to disruptions in the Red Sea, according to a statement released on Saturday. Aramex is “actively monitoring” the crisis, which has prompted carriers to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope, adding some 7 to 14 days to transit times and boosting carbon emissions, the statement said.
OTHER DISRUPTION NEWS WORTH NOTING-
- Grain ships continue to divert away from the Suez Canal: An additional 16 vessels diverted from the Suez Canal so far this week, bringing total diverted grain cargoes to 3.9 mn tons, up from 3 mn tons last week, Kpler lead agricultural commodities analyst said. (Reuters)
- More diversions: Australian mining firm BHP Group is diverting “almost all its shipments,” from Asia to Europe to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, away from the Red Sea. The diversion will cost shipments some 9 days in delays, the report said citing industry sources. (Wall Street Journal)
- El Al suspends its flights to South Africa:Israeli carrier El Al will halt its weekly flights to Johannesburg at the end of March, citing a sharp fall in bookings following South Africa’s claims against Israel at the World Court. (Reuters)
- US + UK sanction Houthi officials: The US and the UK have jointly imposed sanctions on four Houthi military officials including Defence Minister Mohamed Nasser al-Atifi, Naval Forces commander Muhammad Fadl Abd Al-Nabi, coastal defense forces chief Muhammad Ali al-Qadiri, and director of procurement Muhammed Ahmad al-Talibi. (Statement | Reuters)
- CMA CGM reshuffles Algerian routes: CMA CGM cargoes bound for Algeria will now transit via Algeciras or Valencia in Spain rather than Tanger, Morocco. The move comes after Algeria banned transit and transhipment operations through Moroccan ports. (Statement)
