Merchandise traffic in the Red Sea falls 46% since the start of Houthi attacks

The traffic of goods through the Bab el Mandeb pass, in the Red Seais today 46% lower than since the beginning of the attacks on navigation by the Yemeni militias on November 19, and 53% less than what was recorded on January 7 of the previous year, according to data from Port Watch.

Port Watch, a maritime traffic disruption analysis tool, developed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), collects maritime traffic data from around the world.

On November 18, the day before the Houthis hijacked the Galaxy Leader ship off the coast of Yemen61 cargo ships and 23 oil tankers crossed the pass, while this past Sunday, only 30 and 14 did so, respectively.

The most drastic reduction in traffic occurred from mid-December, as the attacks intensified and, according to the United States Department of State, have already affected more than twenty commercial vessels.

global trade

The Red Sea, delimited to the north by the Suez Canal and to the south by the Strait of Bab el Mandeb, is a route through which more than 19,000 cargo ships navigate annually, which represents 11% of global maritime traffic, in addition to being the fastest route between Asian ports and the Mediterranean.

Since mid-November, Yemen’s Shiite rebels have launched projectiles at ships flying the flag of the Jewish State or owned by Israeli companies as they pass through Bab el Mandeb, in response to the offensive in Gaza.

The attacks on the Yemeni coast affected, although to a lesser extent, the passage of the Suez Canalwhich saw its traffic reduced by 33.4% since the same date, although the president of the canal Authority, Osama Rabiee, stated last December that navigation through the pass “is developing normally.”

Faced with this threat, some of the most important shipping companies in the world are redirecting their cargo ships in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope, among them the Danish shipping company Maersk, who assured last Friday that they will avoid that route completely in “the immediate future” or MSC, the largest container company, which stopped operating in those waters in mid-December.

The French CMA CGM assured, however, that some of its ships had managed to cross Bab el Mandeb and plans to resume the route completely in the future.

Alternative route

The alternative route, which borders the African continent to the south and which has increased its transit by 33.2% in that period, involves 10 more days of crossing, considerably increases fuel costs and increases the final freight price.

According to Port Watch, the sectors most affected at the moment are oil, and non-metallic chemicals and minerals.

The military coalition formed to respond to the Houthi offensive, led by USA, accused Yemeni rebels of “disrupting critical transit of food, fuel and humanitarian assistance from around the world.”

The rebels, for their part, assured that “the formation of an American alliance to protect Israeli ships represents a serious threat to the security of international navigation in the Red Sea, and those involved must bear the consequences of their dangerous and irresponsible escalation,” the group’s political bureau said in a statement.

Both the Houthis and Somali pirates have carried out these attacks since the war in the Gaza Strip between the Islamist group Hamas and Israel began on October 7.