The risk level remains ”elevated” in the region, the logistics group says, and routing around the Cape of Good Hope remains the “most reasonable solution”
Maersk has issued an update on the current situation in the Red Sea, confirming that the risk remains too high to resume sailing in the region.
It acknowledged that some other shipping lines continued sailing through the Red Sea despite security risks, while others had announced plans to resume sailing.
The group also welcomed the “very positive development” of European Union security operation Aspides, which it hoped would increase safety and reduce the risk to vessels passing through the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb Strait specifically.
However, its analysis meant that it was not yet willing to change its current stance, Maersk said.
”Regretfully, both our internal analysis, as well as insight we received from external sources, still indicates that the risk level in the region remains elevated,” it stated.
”We have seen attacks on commercial vessels increase in numbers, including the tragic attack on the vessel True Confidence, which resulted in the death of three crew members, and the sinking of the vessel Rubymar, which is posing a serious environmental risk.
”These incidents unfortunately highlight the lethal effectiveness of missiles currently used by Houthi attackers and are one of the reasons for the elevated security risk we have in place at the moment.”
The group said it respected the right of each carrier to make its own decision about sailing through the region.
”At the same time, we continue with our own assessment that the current situation does not allow us to make a similar decision and with thus still believe that sailing via the Cape of Good Hope and around Africa is the most reasonable solution at the moment and the one that currently allows the best supply chain stability.
“Network changes are complex and take time to implement and we believe we should only implement such changes when they can be sustained over a longer period of time,” Maersk said. “We continue to believe it is the only way to avoid further disruption under the current circumstances.
The safety and wellbeing of its crews, the safety of vessels they were sailing on and the safety and integrity of its customers’ cargo being transported remained the utmost priority, the group noted.
”We remain hopeful that resuming sailing through the Red Sea will become possible in the near future and we are committed to providing our customers with regular updates on the developments,” Maersk added.
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