Major ocean carriers have decided that their ships will not transit the Suez Canal due to recent attacks in the Red Sea.
The world’s largest container carrier, MSC has announced its vessels will not transit the Suez Canal eastbound and westbound “until the Red Sea passage is safe”.
The Swiss/Italian shipping giant its 2,500 TEU boxship named MSC Palatium III, which was under sub charter to Messina Line, was attacked while transiting the Red Sea 15 December.
“All crew are safe with no reported injuries, meanwhile the vessel suffered limited fire damage and has been taken out of service.
“Already now, some services will be rerouted to go via the Cape of Good Hope. This disruption will impact the sailing schedules by several days of vessels booked for Suez transit,” MSC said.
Danish container shipping company Maersk has also stated that all of its ships in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait will pause their journey until further notice.
Also, German ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd said it would pause all container ship traffic through the Red Sea until Monday 18 December and will decide for the period thereafter.
Israeli container carrier ZIM and French shipping giant CMA CGM has also announced the halt of all their vessels bound for the Suez Canal via the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait due to safety and security concerns.
COSCO-owned container line OOCL has also announced that due to operational issues, it will stop cargo acceptance to and from Israel until further notice.
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