Major shipping lines to continue to skip the red sea route

Shipping giant Maersk which had suspended its operations through the volatile Red sea shipping lane following the missile attack on one of its ships a few days ago has announced that it will not resume passage through a key Red Sea Strait until further notice.

The Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned and operated container vessel en route from Singapore to Port Suez in Egypt, reported being struck by a missile while transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the choke point between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Maersk has decided to pause all transits through the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden until further notice, as per reports.  In cases where it makes most sense for its customers, vessels will be re-routed and continue their journey around the Cape of Good Hope, the company added.

Meanwhile several shipping companies have said they would avoid, either entirely or as far as possible, transit through the Red Sea. Many have been re-routing some sailings via Africa’s southern Cape of Good Hope. The disruption threatens to drive up delivery costs for goods, raising fears it could trigger a fresh bout of global inflation, the reports said.

Around 12 per cent of global trade passes through the Suez Canal, representing 30 per cent of all global container traffic and over 1 trillion US dollars worth of goods annually.