German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd said in a recent statement that Houthi attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea are unlikely to end soon, forcing shipping companies to continue to avoid the Red Sea route.
Recently, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Haben Jensen said at a press conference that Hapag-Lloyd does not see an end to the Houthi attacks in the short term. "But how long will it be over, you ask? Three months or five months, I don't know."
He added that a political agreement or armed defense of the cargo ships could bring a solution within six months. Hapag-lloyd had decided to avoid the Red Sea and bypass the Cape of Good Hope after one of its ships was attacked on December 15.
Hapag-lloyd said measures to ease the circumnavigation of the Cape include buying more containers, using more ships to meet demand on time and running ships with more fuel, but at higher costs for customers.
Previously, Hapag-Lloyd announced its annual financial results, with an EBIT of 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in 2023, well below the 17.5 billion euros in 2022. The company said freight rates had fallen sharply as global supply chains returned to normal after the outbreak.
Regarding the Red Sea shipping crisis, Maersk also recently said that the global shipping disruption caused by the attack on the Red Sea ship is likely to last at least several months, hopefully shorter, but it could be longer because the situation is so unpredictable.
On January 31, Yemen's Houthi armed forces issued a statement saying that their naval forces launched an attack on an "American merchant ship" in the Gulf of Aden hours after firing missiles at the USS Gravely.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarrea reportedly said in a statement that they targeted "the U.S. merchant ship 'KOl, firing several naval missiles." It is understood that the Liberian-flagged container ship KOl is operated by a British company.
