Maersk, one of the largest container shipping lines in the world, has announced it will "pause" all container shipments through the Red Sea.
HAPAG-LLOYD, another of the largest container shipping lines in the world, has also just announced it will pause sending ships into the Red Sea, for at least the next three days.
Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) will pause all container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice, a spokesperson for the company announced today.
In 2022, Maersk was operating 15.3 percent of the global container ship fleet, taking second place after the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), controlling 18.6 percent. As of May 2023, Maersk was operating 682 container ships with a combined capacity of around 4.13 million TEUs.
"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," the company said in a statement.
Yesterday, Maersk said its vessel Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while travelling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe.
by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia had struck a Maersk vessel sailing towards Israel.
"The vessel was not hit," a Maersk spokesperson told media outlets in an emailed statement following the Houthi claim.
The Houthis had claimed they carried out a military operation against a Maersk container vessel, directly hitting it with a drone. The Houthis, who made the claim in a statement, did not release any evidence.
Maersk said the company was deeply concerned about the highly escalated security situation in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
"The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers," it wrote in the statement.
Hapag-Lloyd Shipping Company also announced just minutes ago: "We have decided to postpone the sailing of all our ships through the Red Sea in the next three days."
Hapag-Lloyd controls about 6 percent of the global container vessel fleet.
These halts to ocean container shipments into and out of the Red Sea will have an IMMEDIATE impact on the Global Supply Chain.
NEW ATTACKS
The Houthis today have targeted the MSC "Alanya" and the "Palatium 3" ships with anti-ship missiles. They warned the ships to keep their tracker on and follow the Yemeni naval forces' orders. When those ships failed/refused, they were fired upon.
The attacks by Yemen, against ships in the Red Sea, began after Israel launched its war against Hamas in The Gaza Strip. Seeing so many civilian deaths, Yemen told Israel to stop the attacks or it would face a military response. Israel refused because Yemen cannot get to Israel.
But Israel apparently never considered that all the ships traveling to and from Israel, via the Red Sea, could be fired upon as they pass the strait of El Mandib, along the Yemen Coast.
And it is at that Strait, that Yemen is firing upon ships, forcing them to cease traveling to/from Israel.
Thus, tiny Yemen has created an actual -- and effective -- naval blockade of Israel in the Red Sea.
