Attacks within the Red Sea: That’s why many items from Asia are actually arriving late | EUROtoday

As of: 2:42 p.m | Reading time: 4 minutes

Dhe assaults on service provider ships within the Red Sea are leaving a transparent mark on international container visitors at sea. “The amount of containers transported there fell by over half and is currently almost 70 percent below the volume actually expected,” reported the Kiel Institute for Economic Research (IfW) on Thursday.

additionally learn

“The diversion of ships due to the attacks in the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa is causing the time for the transport of goods between Asian production centers and European consumers to be significantly extended by up to 20 days,” the stated Trade coverage skilled Julian Hinz. However, Hinz doesn’t anticipate any penalties for client costs in Europe.

Since the Gaza struggle broke out between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly attacked ships with alleged Israeli connections within the Red Sea. Large delivery firms are more and more avoiding the route. Around ten p.c of all world commerce passes by way of the Red Sea. The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, offering the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe.

additionally learn

At the IfW, economists report international ship actions in actual time. This permits them to very exactly analyze faults within the transport chains on the world’s oceans. According to IfW, the transport quantity by way of the Red Sea is at present solely round 200,000 containers per day, after round 500,000 containers in November. “This means that the current volume is 66 percent below the actually expected volume, calculated from the freight volume from 2017 to 2019.”

additionally learn

Instead of going by way of the Red Sea, the ships are actually crusing round Africa and the Cape of Good Hope; the detour takes 7 to twenty days. The prolonged journey time has considerably elevated the costs for container transport – identified in trade jargon as freight charges. “The transport of a 40-foot standard container between China and Northern Europe currently costs over 4,000 US dollars; in November it was around 1,500 US dollars,” says the IfW. “However, the current price is still a long way from the drastic spikes during the Corona pandemic, when transporting a container on this route cost up to $14,000.”

Nevertheless, “no noticeable consequences for consumer prices in Europe are to be expected, especially since the proportion of freight costs in the value of high-priced items, for example in the consumer electronics sector, is only in the per thousand range,” says IfW skilled Hinz. Major disruptions within the provide chains are additionally to not be anticipated. “The situation today is not comparable to the environment during the Suez Canal Ever Given disaster and the coronavirus pandemic, when lockdowns led to a drastic decline in the supply of goods while demand in Europe soared.”

120 circumstances of maritime piracy

This phenomenon can also be nonetheless inflicting issues for delivery firms: the variety of pirate assaults on the world’s oceans has elevated once more over the course of 2023. In complete, in accordance with information from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), 120 incidents of maritime piracy and armed theft in opposition to ships had been reported – in comparison with 115 in 2022. 105 ships had been boarded, 9 assaults had been tried, 4 ships had been hijacked and two ships had been fired upon, in accordance with the International Chamber of Commerce delivery workplace belonging to it reported on Thursday. At the beginning of 2023, the specialists reported sharply declining numbers. Ships with German participation had been affected a complete of 14 instances in 2023, making them the second most often affected after Singapore (28). “The growing number of attacks on ships and crews is worrying. They show once again that piracy is not a relic of the past, but a very current challenge,” stated ICC Germany Secretary General Oliver Wieck. “In addition, as a result of the Middle East conflict, politically motivated attacks by militant Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea are increasing.”

Another assault off Somalia

The IMB warns specifically of the rising hazard to ship crews: The variety of crew members who had been taken hostage or kidnapped rose from 41 to 73 and from 2 to 14. An additional ten crew members had been threatened, 4 had been injured and one was attacked. For the primary time since 2017, a ship – a bulk service with 18 crew members – was attacked off the coast of Somalia. The freighter, which was allegedly boarded by Somali pirates, was freed by the Indian Navy shortly afterwards.

A spotlight of piracy continues to be the West African Gulf of Guinea. Even although the variety of reported incidents within the Gulf is declining with 22 final yr and 19 in 2022, “three out of four of the kidnappings reported worldwide last year occurred in these waters, which therefore continue to be classified as dangerous,” it stated it within the message. There can also be no cause to present the all-clear for the Singapore Strait.