Shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd told reporters on Thursday they are not yet prepared to return to the Red Sea shipping lanes after the peace deal announced between Israel and Hamas.
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen have been wantonly attacking civilian ships in support of Hamas, largely shutting down what used to be one of the world’s busiest cargo routes. The Houthis said these attacks were an effort to assist Hamas by effectively blockading Israel.
Maersk was the first major shipping line to suspend Red Sea operations in late 2023 due to Houthi attacks, followed closely by Hapag-Lloyd. The shipping giants were unimpressed with President Joe Biden’s announcement of a multinational operation to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea, suspending operations again in early 2024 and warning that incredibly expensive disruptions to cargo service were likely to continue well into 2025.
As the end of Biden’s term approached, shipping companies warned the disruptions were only getting worse and were affecting other transit routes as ships were diverted away from the Suez Canal.
Maersk said in September that the Red Sea crisis led to “service reconfigurations and volume shifts, straining infrastructure and resulting in port congestion, delays, and shortages in capacity and equipment.”
“The timeline for easing these disruptions and returning to ‘normal’ remains uncertain,” the company warned.
On Thursday, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd said it was “too early to speculate about timing” for a return to the Suez Canal route, since the Gaza peace deal “has only just been reached.”
Hapag-Lloyd warned over the summer that even when the Gaza conflict ended, it would take time to determine if the Houthis would cease their pirate attacks and, even once the Red Sea was deemed safe, it would take four to six weeks for normal transit to resume.
Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc likewise said in October that he expected the Red Sea disruption to “last well into 2025,” even under the most optimistic scenarios. His company released earnings reports around that time that showed profits were strong thanks to high demand for freight, even though costs were much higher without the Red Sea route.
Troubled Waters for U.S.-led Red Sea Task Force as Biden Call Ignored https://t.co/eDppwFGUxQ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 29, 2023
Maersk said at the end of December that it sympathized with the frustration of its customers due to “delays and bottleneck at ports,” plus “industry-wide equipment and capacity shortages, as well as additional direct and indirect costs.” The company was obliged to increase some of its surcharges for freight to absorb these costs.
A senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday that the Houthi response to the Gaza ceasefire was still uncertain. The official declaration from Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam on social media did not discuss ending Red Sea terror attacks:
With this battle reaching its conclusion with the declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza, the Palestinian cause was and will remain the first cause for which the nation must assume responsibility, considering the Zionist enemy entity a dangerous entity for everyone, and its continued occupation of Palestine represents a threat to the security and stability of the region, and that there will be no real peace for the region except with the disappearance of this emergency entity planted by force by a Western American force that provides it with the means to survive at the expense of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region.
On the very same day, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed his forces attacked the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group.
“Missile forces and unmanned forces conducted a joint military operation, attacking the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and a number of ships accompanying it in the northern part of the Red Sea using cruise missiles and drones,” Saree said in televised remarks.
“The operation came as U.S. forces were preparing for a new airstrike against Yemen,” he claimed. The Pentagon did not immediately comment on the claim.
Saree added that attacks on international vessels would continue “until the war on Gaza stops.”
