“The situation is constantly evolving and fluctuates greatly,” the company said on Friday. The security risk remains at a significantly increased level. The company will therefore reroute its ships around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa for the foreseeable future.
In this context, Maersk alerted its customers to ongoing tensions in the region and significant disruptions in global supply chains. Maersk had discussed possible use of the route despite the recent attack by Houthi rebels on one of its freighters in the Red Sea. The shipping company relied on the multinational security initiative OPG, which is intended to enable maritime trade through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. German rival Hapag-Lloyd rerouted its fleet on Tuesday for at least another week. Next Tuesday, the Hamburg company wants to decide once more whether the ships should be rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope.
In Yemen, the Houthi rebels have declared solidarity with the radical Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip and have repeatedly attacked ships off the coast they control. Because of the rerouted ships between Asia and Northern Europe, experts expect each trip to take an additional ten days and increase fuel costs of up to a million dollars.
Hapag-Lloyd warns of higher costs
Germany’s largest container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd has to incur higher costs because of avoiding the Suez Canal and is charging further surcharges for its customers. For the 25 Hapag-Lloyd ships diverted between December 18th and 31st alone, additional costs in the double-digit million range were incurred, a company spokesman said on Friday when asked.
There are additional surcharges for customers that are directly related to the tense security situation in the Red Sea. The amount of the surcharges depends on the travel area. Depending on the route, there are also delays of between one week and three weeks.
Hapag-Lloyd does not see much scope to change this. “Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to counteract this, except for driving faster, which we sometimes do, but which in turn increases fuel consumption,” explained the spokesman. On the routes from the Far East to the Mediterranean, to Northern Europe and to the US east coast, there are no alternatives to rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa. Citing the uncertain situation due to attacks by the Yemeni Houthi militia on freighters in the Red Sea, Hapag-Lloyd diverted its ships on Tuesday for at least another week. Next Tuesday, the world’s fifth largest container shipping company wants to decide how to proceed.
