Danish Shipping Giant Maersk Pausing Red Sea Shipments Due to Houthi Attacks
“The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers.”
Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the second largest in the world, has paused all Red Sea shipments after Houthis attacked one ship.
The company told AFP: “Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice.”
The move could cause major problems in the supply chain:
While it’s unclear how long-lasting the pause will be, such a step from a company of Maersk’s scale — it has a fleet of over 300 ships and ranks No. 2 in the world — underscores how serious and potentially economically damaging the attacks could be.
About 12% of global seaborne trade passes through Egypt’s Suez Canal to the north, almost all of it also traversing Bab al-Mandab.
—
Disruptions in the area can snarl supply chains and world trade. Back in 2021, the grounding of the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week, throwing ships off schedule for months and tightening the available of cargo space. That accident was estimated to have cut capacity by 20% to 30% for several weeks.
“We are deeply concerned about the highly escalated security situation in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” Maersk said in its statement Friday. “The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers.”
Iran backs the Houthi terrorist group, which is based in Yemen.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the terrorists attacked Maersk’s ship because it didn’t “respond to warnings from ‘Yemeni naval forces.'”
Houthis have ramped up Red Sea attacks since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7. The militants have attempted to attack U.S. ships many times.
Now, it seems that it doesn’t matter if the ships are military and headed to Israel. Houthis have attacked three container ships “in the past day or so.”
Houthis hit “three commercial ships” on Sunday. A U.S. warship destroyed three drones headed its way, claiming two came from the terrorist group:
The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer, detected a ballistic missile fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at the Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer. The missile hit near the ship, the U.S. said. Shortly afterward, the Carney shot down a drone headed its way, although it’s not clear if the destroyer was the target, Central Command said.
About 30 minutes later, the Unity Explorer was hit by a missile. While responding to its distress call, the Carney shot down another incoming drone. Central Command said the Unity Explorer sustained minor damage from the missile.
Two other commercial ships, the Panamanian-flagged bulk carriers Number 9 and Sophie II, were both struck by missiles. The Number 9 reported some damage but no casualties, and the Sophie II reported no significant damage, Central Command said.
While sailing to assist the Sophie II around 4:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT), the Carney shot down another drone heading in its direction. The drones did no damage.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Paging Thomas Jefferson…. “please pick up the courtesy whoop-ass phone and tell 0bama bin Biden what to do. As for the pirates this is what Jefferson was told back then that has never changed….
When they asked the envoy the reasoning concerning the hostile actions, ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman responded:
“It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.”
As I have said many times, Islam is subversive and barbaric, they deserve to be treated accordingly, and rushed to paradise. America most make laws to facilitate quick and permanent solutions for this problem.
Your hatred for “subversive and barbaric” Islam is showing again. Why don’t you just say what is really on your mind? That all Islamic people should be sent to concentration camps, killed, and burned in gas chambers. That is what you really want.
I have never advocated concentration camps, just Islamic paradise for belligerents on a grand enough scale that their belligerence is tempered. There is no reason that the West should give a rats ass about what they like or dislike.
Or maybe the Europeans and Japan who rely upon Mid east oil far more than the USA and who also export quite a bit to the Mid east could invest in a Navy capable of protecting their shipping. Better yet restrict US Navy support to US Flagged vessels, that alone would revitalize US Shipyards.
Iran is behind all this, for each attack, destroy an Iranian dam, starting with the largest hydroelectric, and then working down by size. Iran is in a decades long drought, they cannot afford to lose dams and the water they store.
This represents an incremental approach to reigning in Iran.
nah, knock out the oil terminals in the gulf
Now would be a good time for the US to start serious strikes against the Hooties
How many warships are patrolling the region? France have at least one missile defense frigate(?) there. The Dutch navy have been pretty aggressive in the Aden Sea area.
News on it is pretty sketchy.
Combined Task Force 151 (counter piracy) still exists, on paper at least.
Maybe the all those countries impacted by the piracy might want to pony up some boats and people to fight it since we are a little busy at the moment.
I’m sure at least some of those countries will hold our coats for us.
Biden took the Houthis off the list of terrorist groups. He funded the Iranians. He humiliated and restrained the Saudis. (And he continues to hamstring Israel, the last line of defense against Islam’s invasion of the West.)
The Biden Administration has set the world on fire. A lot people are dying because of Biden & Co. The US needs to put an end to the Obama/Biden initiated destruction of world order.
What you see off the coast of Yemen is why isolationism does not work. Lack of free navigation will affect the US. That doesn’t mean the US should fight every war or be the world’s policeman. But it can’t recede into its cocoon either.
In the meanwhile, stocks of companies that export LNG to Europe might be a good bet, although Europe is apparently supplied for the winter.
Stumbling mumbling biden, international symbol of weakness.
Houthi terrorists are smiling.