MSC and CMA CGM ships avoid Suez Canal after attacks

BANGALORE/PARIS (Reuters) – Swiss company MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co will stop using the Suez Canal following an attack on one of its ships, the largest container shipping company said on Saturday in the world, while the French shipowner CMA CGM ordered its crews to avoid this shipping route.

In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has attacked ships in the Red Sea, a crucial route that allows east-west trade, including oil, to pass through the Suez Canal to avoid the time and additional costs associated with circumnavigating Africa.

According to the Houthis, the Liberian-flagged ship MSC Palatium III was attacked by a drone on Friday in the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.

No injuries were reported, but the ship suffered damage from the fire and was taken out of service, MSC said in a statement. Another Liberian-flagged ship, the Al Jasrah, was hit by a missile, which also started a fire, according to the US military.

The maritime transport giant CMA CGM, based in Marseille, for its part said in a statement sent to Reuters that it had taken in recent days “increased preventive measures to ensure the safety of (its) ships and their crews operating in these waters”, at a time when “the situation continues to deteriorate and safety concerns are increasing”.

“We have therefore decided to order all CMA CGM container ships in the region that must pass through the Red Sea to move to safe areas and stop their journey in safe waters, with immediate effect and until new order”, specified the French shipowner, who said he was taking “all necessary measures to preserve its transport services for its customers”.

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In recent weeks, the Houthis have increased attacks on ships and fired drones and missiles towards Israel – on Saturday they hit the Red Sea resort of Eilat – in support of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, supported by Iran, which fights against Israel in Gaza.

A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthis, Mohamed Abdel-Salama, said on Saturday that the group was engaging in talks, mediated by Oman, with “international parties” over ongoing “operations” at sea Red and in the Arabian Sea.

The Houthis, who rule much of Yemen, have vowed to continue attacks until Israel ends its offensive, but said Friday they were only targeting ships heading to Israeli ports .

However, the Palatium III and another threatened MSC ship, the Alanya, have listed Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as their destination, according to data from ship tracking and maritime analytics service provider MarineTraffic.

Bab al-Mandab is one of the world’s most important routes for the maritime transport of goods, particularly crude oil and fuel from the Gulf to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal or the SUMED pipeline, located in proximity, as well as goods destined for Asia, notably Russian oil.

Britain said on Saturday that one of its warships had shot down a suspected attack drone that was targeting merchant shipping in the region.

In response to the increase in attacks, Danish company AP Moller-Maersk on Friday halted all container shipments through Bab al-Mandab until further notice, and German container shipping company Hapag Lloyd indicated it could do the same, hours after reporting that one of its ships, the Al Jasrah, had been attacked near Yemen.

MSC said it would reroute some services around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, adding days to journeys for ships that had to pass through the Suez Canal.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bangalore and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; written by Kevin Liffey, Mathieu Rosemain, Benjamin Mallet and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris)