2024-01-26T11:56:49+00:00
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/ The Danish shipping group “Maersk” confirmed, on Friday, the diversion of the “MECL” shipping line between India and the US East Coast.
The company said in a statement reported by Western media that ships “passing through ports in the Middle East (via this line) will no longer pass through the Red Sea, but will sail around the Cape of Good Hope.”
Two days ago, Maersk said in an advisory note to its customers that it was rerouting its ME2 container service away from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to the Cape of Good Hope.
The ME2 service connects Italy and the western Mediterranean with the west coast of India.
On January 19, the company said it had temporarily suspended bookings to Djibouti from Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, East and South Africa on its Blue Nile Express freight service.
“The situation in and around the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden remains volatile and all available intelligence indicates that the security risk remains at a very high level,” Maersk said in a statement.
Maersk said its Blue Nile Express service would immediately remove Djibouti, Jeddah and King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia.
Maersk said it did not expect any impact on capacity.
Maersk had hoped that international intervention and a broader naval presence in the Red Sea would eventually lead to commercial shipping through the strait resuming again.
In a previous statement, she said: “We hope that these interventions and the larger naval presence will ultimately lead to reducing the atmosphere of danger, allowing commercial maritime navigation to cross the Red Sea and return once again to using the Suez Canal as a passageway.”
Shipping companies have rerouted their ships away from the Red Sea to take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope around southern Africa after Iran-allied Houthi militias intensified attacks on ships in the area.