A picture of the Israeli ship that the Houthis seized last November to mark the start of their operations (Al Jazeera)
Tensions in the Red Sea have prompted more international shipping companies to divert their ships towards the Cape of Good Hope at a time when others are looking for land shipping alternatives.
The Danish shipping group Maersk said, in an advisory note to its customers on Monday, that it is diverting the ME2 container service away from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the Cape of Good Hope.
The ME2 service connects Italy and the western Mediterranean with the western coast of India and the UAE.
This comes against the backdrop of Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which they say target Israeli ships heading to Israel in response to the aggression against the Gaza Strip. The United States and Britain responded by targeting Houthi sites, which inflamed tensions at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
Wild trails
For its part, the German shipping group "Hapag-Lloyd" said on Monday that it would continue to direct its ships to sail around the Cape of Good Hope until further notice due to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, after it announced that it would open land corridors through Saudi Arabia to mitigate the impact of the situation on its business.
The company added that it "continues to constantly monitor and review the situation, and as soon as conditions change and the situation becomes safe again, our ships will sail through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal."
In a previous statement to customers published on its website, the company said that it would provide land transportation lines from Jebel Ali, Dammam and Jubail for its service that departs from Jeddah.
“Our goal is to provide customers with a suitable solution to overcome this unexpected disruption until the situation in the Red Sea returns to normal,” she said.
The company studies at regular intervals whether it is possible to return to the normal shipping route through the Suez Canal.
Hapag-Lloyd regularly provides logistics services, bringing goods from ports by road or rail.
The shipping company says it operates in 55 ports and 53 land stations in the Middle East.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies