Vessel traffic down 20% in Red Sea due to rerouting following Houthi attacks

LONDON (AA) – Ship traffic in the Red Sea decreased by 20% in December 2023, as shipping companies suspended their operations or shifted their routes to the Cape of Good Hope after the Houthis in Yemen attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea linked to Israel.

Yemen’s Houthi group, officially known as Ansar Allah, has significantly stepped up its involvement in the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The group has warned it will attack all Israel-bound ships in the Red Sea — one of the world’s most frequently used sea routes for oil and fuel shipments — in a bid to support Palestinians as they face Israel’s aggression and siege in Gaza.

Several of the world’s largest container companies have suspended operations in the region.

According to data obtained from MarineTraffic, a ship tracking and maritime analytics provider, following the Houthi attacks, ship traffic decreased noticeably, especially in the second half of December 2023, as many shipping companies decided to stop their operations there.

The most influential factor in the decline in traffic in the Red Sea was that container ships stopped transiting the Red Sea and turned their routes to the Cape of Good Hope.

According to MarineTraffic data, the number of container ships passing through the Red Sea in December 2023 decreased by 25% compared to the number of ships in December 2022.

In this period, the number of ro-ro vessels passing through the Red Sea also decreased by 25%, while there was no significant change in the number of liquefied natural gas, LPG, and dry cargo vessels.

Following the attacks in the Babu’l Mendep Strait in the Red Sea, the Danish shipping company Maersk, the world’s largest container company, the Italian-Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, the French shipping company CMA CGM and the British energy company BP decided to suspend their operations in the region.

Following these companies’ decisions, daily ship traffic in the Red Sea decreased by 20% in the second half of December 2023 compared to the first half of the month.

Ship traffic in the Red Sea declined rapidly as of December 16, 2023.

While the number of ships traveling in the Red Sea was 646 on December 1, this number increased to 681 on December 16 and dropped to 521 on December 31.

– Crossings through the Cape of Good Hope up 27% –

Following the redirection of container ships’ transits in the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, ship transits through the Cape of Good Hope increased by 27% in the week of December 25-31 compared to the previous week.

Taiwanese container shipping company Evergreen and Hong Kong-based OOCL suspended deliveries to Israeli ports while Maersk and MSC resumed.

Maersk announced on January 5, after one of its ships was attacked by the Houthis, that it had decided to divert all of its ships transiting the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden from around the Cape of Good Hope to the south in the near future.

Redirecting the route of the ships to the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa means an increase in travel time by 10-14 days and 4,000 nautical miles (6,500 kilometers).

Such a longer operation costs around $1 million in extra fuel costs, while insurance costs and delivery time also increase.