German shipping company Hapag Lloyd will continue to divert its ships from transiting the Red Sea and Suez Canal for safety reasons until January 9, a spokesman for the group said on Tuesday.
A new evaluation of the situation will be carried out on that date, he added. Shipping groups have diverted their ships to the Cape of Good Hope on their voyages between Asia and Europe due to attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. Mitsui OSK Lines and Nippon Yusen, Japan’s largest shipping companies, also said last Friday that their ships with ties to Israel were avoiding the Red Sea area. Both companies said they were monitoring the situation.
An additional cost of one billion dollars in fuel
Shipping giants including Hapag Lloyd and Danish shipowner Maersk stopped using the Red Sea and Suez Canal routes for a month after the Houthis began attacking ships, disrupting global trade. Shipping companies therefore redirected ships to the southern tip of South Africa to avoid attacks. They also charged customers additional fees and extended shipping times.
However, Maersk now plans to route almost all container ships traveling between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal and divert only a small portion through Africa, according to a detailed analysis of the schedule by the group. French company CMA CGM, which is among the companies that introduced surcharges for diverting ships, said on Tuesday it was considering also increasing the number of ships transiting the Suez Canal.
The Suez Canal is used by around a third of the world’s cargo and diverting ships around the southern tip of Africa is expected to cost up to $1 billion (€904.98 million) in additional fuel for each one-way trip. and back between Asia and northern Europe.
Source: BFM TV
