Maersk has warned customers to prepare for “significant disruption” to global networks as the ongoing Red Sea diversions cause the carrier and 2M Alliance partner Mediterranean Shipping Co. to cut port calls across the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Shippers are already facing both a capacity shortage and soaring freight rates on westbound services as rerouting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid drone and missile attacks in and around the Red Sea launched by Houthi militants based in Yemen adds at least two weeks to Asia-Mediterranean services.
“The situation in and around the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden is deeply volatile with all available intelligence at hand confirming that the security risk continues to be at a significantly high level,” Maersk said in a statement Wednesday.
“While we continue to hope for a sustainable resolution in the near future and do all we can to contribute towards it, the situation currently remains untenable, and we encourage customers to prepare for complications in the area to persist and for there to be significant disruption to the global network,” the carrier added.
The changes to 2M port rotations on Asia-Europe and Middle East services will see Jeddah being omitted on MSC/Maersk’s Condor/AE7 service, while on the Griffin/AE55 service the ports of Salalah and King Abdullah will be omitted eastbound with ships instead calling Colombo for onward connections to the Middle East.
The Jade/AE11 service will omit Port Said, King Abdullah, Abu Dhabi and Jebel Ali eastbound, while Port Said and Gioia Tauro will be cut westbound. Jeddah will be omitted on the Phoenix/AE12 service with Port Said being cut eastbound and King Abdullah and Piraeus calls omitted on both eastbound and westbound services.
Other carriers are also adjusting port rotations or cutting entire services as they try to manage the impact the Red Sea situation is having on their shipping schedules.
CMA CGM has adjusted its services from North Europe and the Mediterranean to India and Oceania. Malta has been omitted on the southbound routes, with all Mediterranean calls routed through Valencia. On the northbound route, all Mediterranean calls have been omitted, with import volumes to be transshipped either in Tanger Med “whenever a berth is available” or in Hamburg.
Hapag-Lloyd said it has been forced to suspend its GEM service connecting the East Mediterranean and Turkey with the Persian Gulf via the Suez Canal and Red Sea “until further notice” as continuing the route would require double the number of vessels to maintain a weekly service.
At the same time, the carrier announced it is adding a trucking service from the Persian Gulf across Saudi Arabia to Jeddah, although a spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd acknowledged that there was “very limited capacity” available on the overland route.
Detail please refer to JOC news.
Source:
Knowler, G. (2024b, January 24). Ocean carriers slash port calls as Red Sea Disruptions Grow. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/ocean-carriers-slash-port-calls-red-sea-disruptions-grow_20240124.html