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Hapag-LLoyd container ship
Photo: Rodrigo Garrido / REUTERS
In view of the attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Germany's largest container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd is offering its customers a transit service across Saudi Arabia.
According to a message published online to customers, land transport corridors will connect three ports on the Persian Gulf with the port of Jeddah on the Red Sea.
Jeddah lies roughly halfway between the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen, from where Houthi militias have attacked ships, and the Suez Canal.
In the Persian Gulf, the transshipment points involved are Al-Jubail and Dammam in Saudi Arabia and the port of Jebel Ali in Dubai.
Hapag-Lloyd is offering a “convenient emergency solution” until the situation in the Red Sea normalizes, the shipping company continues.
The land transport corridors are not optimal in terms of capacity.
But overland routes offer another option for transportation, especially when other alternative routes become too long.
After attacks by Houthi militias from Yemen on ships in the region, Hapag-Lloyd has avoided the sea area in the Middle East for weeks.
Ships have not been sent through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal for weeks, but have been redirected around the southern tip of Africa, including from the Danish shipping group Maersk, as the company announced in a customer information.
This leads to delays, higher costs and fees.
Hapag-Lloyd decides at regular intervals whether the regular shipping route through the Suez Canal can be used again.
The next decision is expected today.
In Yemen, the Houthis have declared solidarity with the radical Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip and have repeatedly attacked ships off the coast they control.
A Hapag-Lloyd ship was also attacked on December 15th.
According to insiders, it is now becoming apparent that EU states want to participate in military protection of shipping in the Red Sea.
lph/Reuters