Factbox: Shipping firms avoid Red Sea as Houthi attacks increase

Evergreen Marine Taiwan

19/12/2023 03:35

(Adds HMM)
       Dec 19 (Reuters) - Iranian-backed Houthi militants in
Yemen have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea to show
their support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fighting
Israel in Gaza. 
    The attacks, targeting a route that allows East-West trade,
especially of oil, to use the Suez Canal to save the time and
expense of circumnavigating Africa, have pushed some shipping
companies to re-route vessels. 
    Below are companies (in alphabetical order) that are
considering or have decided to pause shipping via the Red Sea:

    BP  BP.L  
    Oil major BP on Dec. 18 said it had temporarily paused all
transits through the Red Sea.

    CMA CGM  CMACG.UL 
    French shipping group CMA CGM on Dec. 16 said it was pausing
all container shipments through the Red Sea.

    EQUINOR  EQNR.OL 
    Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor on Dec. 18 said it had
re-routed some vessels that had been heading towards the Red
Sea.

    EURONAV  EUAV.BR  
    Belgian oil tanker firm Euronav said on Dec. 18 it would
avoid the Red Sea area until further notice.

    EVERGREEN  2603.TW  
    Taiwanese container shipping line Evergreen said on Dec. 18
its vessels on regional services to Red Sea ports would sail to
safe waters nearby and wait for further notification, while
ships scheduled to pass through the Red Sea would be re-routed
around the Cape of Good Hope. It also temporarily stopped
accepting Israeli cargo.
    
    FRONTLINE  FRO.OL  
    Norway-based oil tanker group Frontline said on Dec. 18 that
its vessels will avoid passages through the Red Sea and the Gulf
of Aden in the time ahead, boosting the rates customers must pay
for crude transport

    HAPAG-LLOYD  HLAG.DE  
    German container shipping line Hapag Lloyd said on Dec. 18
it would re-route several ships via the Cape of Good Hope until
the safety of passage through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea
could be guaranteed.
    A projectile believed to be a drone struck its vessel Al
Jasrah on Dec. 15, while sailing close to the coast of Yemen. No
crew were injured.
    
    HMM  011200.KS  
    South Korean container shipper HMM said on Tuesday it had
from Dec. 15 ordered its ships from Europe which would normally
use the Suez Canal to reroute via the Cape of Good Hope for an
indefinite period of time. 

    MAERSK  MAERSKb.CO 
    Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk on Dec. 15 said it would pause
all container shipments through the Red Sea until further
notice, following a "near-miss incident" involving its vessel
Maersk Gibraltar a day earlier. 
    The ship was targeted by a missile while travelling from
Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the company said.

    MSC
    Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said on Dec. 16 its
ships would not transit through the Suez Canal, with some
already rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope, a day after Houthi
forces fired two ballistic missiles at its MSC Palatium III
vessel. The decision will disrupt sailing schedules by several
days, the Switzerland-based group said.

    OOCL
    Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has stopped cargo
acceptance to and from Israel until further notice, the shipping
company owned by Hong Kong-based Oriental Overseas
(International) Ltd  0316.HK  said on Dec. 16.

    YANG MING MARINE TRANSPORT  2609.TW  
    Taiwan's Yang Ming Marine Transport said on Dec. 18 it would
divert ships sailing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden
via the Cape of Good Hope for the next two weeks.

 (Reporting by Paolo Laudani, Izabela Niemiec and Jesus Calero
in Gdansk; editing by Jason Neely and Stephen Coates)
 ((Paolo.Laudani@thomsonreuters.com;))