©Reuters. A model of a container ship in front of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) logo in an illustration from Reuters archives.
BANGALORE/PARIS (Reuters) – Swiss company MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co will stop using the Suez Canal after an attack on one of its ships, the world’s biggest shipping company said on Saturday. crews to avoid this shipping route.
In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has attacked ships in the Red Sea, a key route that allows trade between East and West, including the US, to pass through the Suez Canal to avoid the weather and extra costs of sailing around Africa.
According to the Houthis, the Liberian-flagged ship MSC Palatium III was attacked by a drone on Friday in the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
No injuries were reported, but the ship was damaged by fire and was decommissioned, MSC said in a statement. Another Liberian-flagged ship, the Al Jasrah, was hit by a missile, which also started a fire, according to the US military.
Marseille-based shipping giant CMA CGM said in a statement sent to Reuters that it had taken “increased precautions to ensure the safety of (its) ships and their crews operating in these waters” in recent days. at a time when “the situation continues to deteriorate and security concerns grow”.
“We have therefore decided to order all CMA CGM container ships in the region that have to pass through the Red Sea to move to safe areas and stop their journey in safe waters, with immediate effect and to the new order,” specified the French shipping company, which stated, that it is taking “all necessary measures to maintain its transport services for its customers”.
CONVERSATIONS BROUGHT BY OMAN
In recent weeks, the Houthis have stepped up attacks on ships and fired drones and rockets at Israel — hitting the Red Sea resort of Eilat on Saturday — in support of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which is fighting Israel in Gaza.
Yemeni Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salama said on Saturday that the group was engaging in talks brokered by Oman with “international parties” about ongoing “operations” in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
The Houthis, who rule much of Yemen, have vowed to continue attacks until Israel ends its offensive, but said on Friday they had only targeted ships bound for Israeli ports.
However, the Palatium III and another MSC ship at risk, the Alanya, have listed Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as their destination, according to data from ship tracking and maritime analytics service provider MarineTraffic.
Bab al-Mandab is one of the world’s most important routes for the maritime transport of goods, especially oil and fuel from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal or the nearby SUMED pipeline, as well as goods bound for Asia. especially Russian oil.
Britain said on Saturday that one of its warships shot down a suspected attack drone that was targeting merchant ships in the region.
In response to the surge in attacks, Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk on Friday halted all container shipments via Bab al-Mandab until further notice, and German container shipping company Hapag Lloyd indicated it might do the same, hours after it announced that one of her Al Jasrah ships were attacked near Yemen.
MSC said it would reroute some services around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa and add days to the journeys for ships that had to go through the Suez Canal.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bangalore and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Writing by Kevin Liffey, Mathieu Rosemain, Benjamin Mallet and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris)