AP Moller – Maersk has announced that its vessels will continue to avoid the Red Sea due to tensions in the region and that it will keep sailing via the Cape of Good Hope as “the most reasonable solution” for the best supply chain stability.
This was despite the shipping line acknowledging in an update to customers that in recent weeks the European Union security operation, Aspides, had taken shape and was “a very positive development” to improve safety and reduce in the future risk to vessels passing through the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb Strait.
“We are in continuous dialogue with the representatives of this joint operation and we monitor its development. We hope that it will – together with other initiatives already ongoing, such as Operation Prosperity Guardian, as well as future ones – enable the safe return of regular operations via the Red Sea,” said AP Moller – Maersk.
“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. 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.”
AP Moller – Maersk said the incidents highlighted the lethal effectiveness of missiles currently used by Houthi attackers, and was one of the reasons for the current elevated security risk.
“At Maersk, we are aware that some other shipping lines have continued sailing through the Red Sea despite security risks, or have announced their plans to resume sailing. We respect the right of each carrier to make such decisions individually,” the shipping line said.
“At the same time, we continue with our own assessment that the current situation does not allow us to make a similar decision and we 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.”
It said network changes were complex and took time to implement and that they should only be implemented when they could be sustained over a longer period of time.
“We continue to believe it is the only way to avoid further disruption under the current circumstances. As we have mentioned many times, our utmost priority remains the safety and wellbeing of our crews, the safety of vessels they are sailing on and the safety and integrity of our customers’ cargo we are transporting,” said AP Moller – Maersk.
“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.”
