by Anadolu Agency
Ship traffic in the Red Sea decreased by 20 per cent in December 2023, as shipping companies suspended their operations or shifted their routes to the Cape of Good Hope after the Houthis in Yemen attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
For weeks, the waterway has been the scene of attacks by the Houthis, who said they would block Israeli ships in support of Gaza. However, many attacks have included non-Israeli ships, prompting major shipping companies to divert their vessels to alternative routes.
According to data MarineTraffic, a ship tracking and maritime analytics provider, following the Houthi attacks, ship traffic decreased noticeably, especially in the second half of December 2023, as many shipping companies decided to stop their operations there.
The most influential factor in the decline in traffic in the Red Sea was that container ships stopped transiting the Red Sea and turned their routes to the Cape of Good Hope.
According to MarineTraffic data, the number of container ships passing through the Red Sea in December 2023 decreased by 25 per cent compared to the number of ships in December 2022.
In this period, the number of ro-ro vessels (roll on/roll off: vessels transporting wheeled cargo) passing through the Red Sea also decreased by 25 per cent, while there was no significant change in the number of liquefied natural gas, LPG and dry cargo vessels.
Following the attacks in the Bab El-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, the Danish shipping company, Maersk, the world’s largest container company, the Italian-Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, the French shipping company CMA CGM and the British energy company, BP, decided to suspend their operations in the region.
Following these companies’ decisions, daily ship traffic in the Red Sea decreased by 20 per cent in the second half of December 2023 compared to the first half of the month.
Ship traffic in the Red Sea declined rapidly as of 16 December, 2023.
While the number of ships travelling in the Red Sea was 646 on 1 December, this number increased to 681 on 16 December and dropped to 521 on 31 December.
