No “final consequences”but “immediate effects”. In presenting, Thursday January 18, the 2023 report of the Grand Maritime Port of Marseille (GPMM), Christophe Castaner, president of its supervisory board, confirmed that the tensions in the Red Sea have directly disrupted, since mid-December 2023, the activity Marseille basins.
Attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on commercial ships passing through the Suez Canal, in the name of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, have provoked “lags of the order of two to three weeks” on planned arrivals in Marseille-Fos, according to the former Minister of the Interior. A delay due to longer transport times for container ships and bulk carriers from China, India or the Middle East, forced to take the maritime route around Africa, via the Cape of Good Hope .
If the GPMM announces a drop of 7% in its overall traffic to 72 million tonnes in 2023 (− 11% for goods alone), mainly due to the slowdown in trade with China, its governance ensures that it cannot yet quantify the The direct impact of attacks in the Red Sea, through which approximately 12% of world trade passes. “Today, there is no massive effect on flows, but we can legitimately think that, if this continued, there would be some”believes Mr. Castaner.
Brutal consequences for dockworkers
“Overall, it’s not good for us”recognizes, for his part, the chairman of the board, Hervé Martel, who fears that the imposed detour will push shipowners to favor ports in northern Europe, to the detriment of the Mediterranean.. Another fear shared by the port: the possibility of seeing the largest container ships passing the Cape of Good Hope in recent days unloading most of their load before Marseille. “Moroccan ports could gain momentum, with transshipment effects”, notes Christophe Castaner. Then served by smaller units which would coast in the Mediterranean, the Grand Maritime Port of Marseille would thus be deprived of part of the volume of containers that it usually handles.
Delays in stopovers are already having effects on GPMM operations, particularly in the western basins, devoted to goods. The pilots, used to guiding an average of five giant container ships per week, saw this part of their activity disappear for around twenty days. Among dockers, the consequences are even more brutal.
You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.