You may have seen that over the Christmas period that ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’, a US-led military operation aimed at maintaining the safety of maritime traffic in the Red Sea, has paved the way for some carriers to start preparing their vessels for routing through the Red Sea again, however they have not committed to a timeframe for this.
We take this as a positive sign; however, attacks to merchant vessels continue to be an issue. On December 26, the US military reported that they shot down 17 attacks from Houthi rebels from drones and missiles and on the same day an MSC container vessel was hit on its way from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, though thankfully no vessel damage or injuries have been reported. Other carriers have communicated to us this week that they will continue to route vessels around Africa for the safety of their vessels and crew. Some carriers are still reviewing the situation. Needless to say, the situation is still evolving every day.
Equipment
Equipment availability is increasingly becoming an issue and we expect this to get worse in the next couple of weeks as the return of vessels to Asia are delayed.
Space / Blank sailings
Vessels due to depart China in Jan H1 are almost full and those due to depart in the second half of the month are nearing capacity, so space is tight and will get tighter as vessels are unable to get back to Asia as scheduled. This may lead to an increase in blank sailings as we approach the Chinese New Year period (10th Feb 2024).
The team at Ligentia are continuing to monitor the response from carriers, industry experts as well as reviewing the movement of ships to understand how quickly carriers are responding to the latest developments, and how this is impacting our customers’ supply chains. Our customer teams are available to provide support this week, so please get in touch to get the latest information on how your shipments are going to be affected by this situation.
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