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If you’ve walked along Sea Point’s promenade in the last while and noticed an atypical amount of cargo ships milling about, you can probably blame the attacks on ships out in the Red Sea.

At the moment, several ships are forced to circumvent the Cape after being rerouted away from the Suez Canal due to the attacks on ships by the Houthis in Yemen. They have been targeting vessels associated with Israel as a form of protest against Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

Despite a recent barrage of military strikes against it by the US and UK, the Houthi attacks on vessels have continued. This week, the UK-based energy company Shell announced the suspension of all shipments through the Red Sea, expressing concerns about the increasing tensions between Yemen’s armed forces and a US-backed military alliance deployed to the Red Sea to counter Houthi attacks on shipping, per Moneyweb.

BP and shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk also announced they would suspend transiting through the Suez Canal due to tensions in the area.

Russian military blogger Colonel Cassad shared this map showing the number of Houthi attacks (red dots) in and around the Red Sea. Some of them are even taking place outside Yemeni territorial waters.

Image: War Mapper

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has confirmed that there has been an increase in vessels calling at Durban and Cape Town for bunkering (refuelling) services in recent weeks. However, it cannot unequivocally be said whether this is because of vessels being diverted from the Suez Canal around the Cape.

SA ship operators and service providers say they are also seeing a modest increase in demand for bunker services in Durban and Cape Town, and suggest that this is likely to accelerate in the coming months, as there is no sign of the Houthis backing down in their threats to target Israel-linked vessels despite the presence of US and British warships in the area.

Durand Naidoo, chair of the Institute of the Chartered Shipbrokers of SA, says that “there are concerns that supply may become on issue if we start seeing a far larger increase in traffic”.

“Two oil refineries that used to produce and store maritime fuel have closed down in recent years, so now we are reliant on imported fuel. For ships sailing around the Cape, scheduling is becoming more complex as they need to plan for supplies, and if SA ports are backed up – as they have been – then they will have to stop at an alternative port, such as in Mauritius.”

According to the US Naval Institute, redirecting ships from the Suez Canal to circumnavigate the Cape can result in an additional eight to 12 days of sailing time. Moreover, it may necessitate a 35% increase in fuel consumption for a vessel departing from a South China port en route to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The 2023 suspension of offshore bunkering services at Algoa Bay by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) over non-compliance with SA customs and labour laws has reduced the capacity to service ships rounding the Cape. While all relevant parties work to untangle that mess, Bloomberg reports that Port Louis in Mauritius and ports in Namibia are becoming more popular for refuelling ships avoiding the Red Sea.

[source:moneyweb]