Houthis Attack MSC Vessel in Indian Ocean
The Houthis struck an MSC merchant ship hundreds of miles east of the Horn of Africa on Friday in the first indicator that the Yemen-based militant group is widening the scope of its ongoing offensive on shipping beyond the Red Sea and neighboring Gulf of Aden.
Damage to the Portugal-flagged MSC Orion was minimal, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, with the crew discovering debris from a drone on board.
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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) confirmed Monday that the drone attack occurred between 300 and 400 nautical miles (345 to 460 miles) off the coast of Somalia.
Sourcing Journal reached out to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which has yet to publicly comment on the attack.
The vessel and crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call.
“For now this does not appear to have changed the carriers’ operations,” said Lars Jensen, CEO of container shipping consultancy Vespucci Maritime, in a LinkedIn post. “Should more such attacks happen on container vessels this might result in vessels heading to/from the Persian Gulf and the transshipment hubs in Oman might take a more easterly detour. This will add some sailing time and, likely, prompt new surcharges.”
The Iran-affiliated group also targeted the Cyclades bulk carrier, as well as two U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised address early on Tuesday.
In March, the Houthis announced their intent to extend their attacks to Israel-linked ships in the Indian Ocean sailing toward Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. The Orion has been associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. The Joint Maritime Information Center’s report determined the MSC ship was likely targeted due to the perceived Israeli affiliation.
The vessel is the sister ship of the MSC Aries, seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on April 13 in the Strait of Hormuz, and was operating the same service between Europe and ports in Sri Lanka and India.
Iran’s foreign minister said the 24 crew members remaining on board the ship will be released, but did not give a timeline for the release date.
The seizure of the Aries had the wider shipping industry up in arms, with 16 maritime shipping organizations calling for the seafarers’ release, and asking United Nations members to do more to ensure the safe transit of ships throughout the affected areas.
Given the nature of the dual MSC incidents and dozens of others, leaders in the global logistics landscape seem to suggest that the Red Sea detours are likely to extend well into the second half of 2024, and potentially into 2025.
Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said in an analyst call organized by the company Monday that he expects the crisis to simmer out before the end of 2024.
Habben Jansen also indicated that the company’s ships are taking seven to 10 days longer to go around the Cape of Good Hope than they would have if they traversed the Suez Canal.
“The safety of our people is more important than seven days transit time,” Jansen said.
On the same call, Thorsten Meincke, who heads air and ocean freight at DB Schenker, said the German freight forwarding giant expects the Red Sea turmoil to likely last through the rest of the year.
“It takes us at least into summer because that would already require getting it solved as we speak right now and that is probably very unlikely,” Meincke said. “So our planning goes that we need to continue with this throughout 2024.”
Alan Murphy, founder of maritime trade advisory service Sea-Intelligence, said multiple factors must take place for Red Sea shipping volumes to normalize.
“Even if the conflict was resolved magically tomorrow, we wouldn’t see Suez transits tomorrow,” Murphy said, indicating that there must be assurances that the Red Sea is safe over the longer term. If that occurs, the schedule adjustments would still take several months given the distances involved.
“If we ever have a long-term safe resolution to the Red Sea crisis, it’s going to take six to 12 months before we actually have stable networks running through the Suez again,” Murphy said.
Habben Jansen was much more optimistic regarding a potential return to normalcy to the Red Sea scenario if safety was assured.
“I think that will go a little bit faster—in reality you should be able to do that in one round trip, which is probably 14 to 17 weeks,” Habben Jansen said.
