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One of the world’s largest tanker companies has warned customers that its fleet should have the option of avoiding the Red Sea and sailing instead around Africa to avoid a spate of attacks by Yemeni rebels on merchant ships.
The decision by Maersk Tankers has the potential to delay the delivery of crucial commodities such as oil, and poses an additional threat to global supply chains during the festive season if it was implemented and followed by other companies.
The Iran-backed Houthis who control a swath of the country, including the capital Sana’a, have stepped up attacks on tankers in the strategically important Bab-el-Mandeb strait, dragging tanker owners into the conflict in the Middle East, after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 triggered a war that has killed thousands in Gaza.
Maersk Tankers, which operates one of the world’s largest tanker fleets, said in a memo to customers that the “rapidly escalating” security situation meant it would insist its tankers had the option to divert via the Cape of Good Hope, at the furthest tip of South Africa, and that this must be at its “sole discretion”.
A clause with specific wording would be sent to customers soon, the Copenhagen-based company said in the note. The company on Friday declined to comment on the contents of the memo. Maersk Tankers is a separate company from Danish shipping and logistics group AP Møller-Maersk.
Switching routes threatens to add days to delivery of goods and pile on extra fuel costs on ship owners, which could ultimately be passed on to consumers. There are also signs that the worsening security situation is boosting insurance costs, with brokers reporting increases in so-called additional war risk premiums.
Ship owners this month called for protection on maritime routes in the region after the Houthis widened attacks in response to the war in Gaza.
The Pentagon said this month that a US warship was among vessels that came under attack off the Yemeni coast, which national security adviser Jake Sullivan described as “totally unacceptable”.
The rebels, who have controlled large parts of Yemen since 2014, have attacked more than 10 ships since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and have threatened to target any vessels heading to Israeli ports, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Svetlana Lobaciova, senior market analyst at EA Gibson Shipbrokers, said she was aware of another big owners who was “talking” about following Maersk Tankers’ example.
While there are still a large number of ship owners willing to go through the Red Sea, the situation was “fluid and things could change going forward”, she said. “Most owners are having to get new [insurance] quotes as we speak,” she said.
Oil prices were little changed on Friday, with the international benchmark Brent crude up 0.3 per cent at $76.84 a barrel.
