Yemeni Houthis reportedly fired two missiles on Monday at a vessel that was bound for a port-based in Iran, causing minor damages but zero injuries to the crew members, the authorities said. The attacks on the Greek-operated Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier named the Star Iris show how widely the Houthis target vessels that sail through the waters of the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden linking the two waterways.

The Star Iris was heading to Bandar Khomeini in Iran from Brazil. Iran is the key backer as well as the armor of the Houthis in Yemen’s age-old war. Without providing any evidence, the Houthis tried to present the Star Iris as an “American” ship and alleged to have fired several missiles against it.

The Houthi military, via Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, spokesperson, will not hesitate to launch additional operations in retaliation to Zionist crimes against the group’s brothers in the Gaza Strip. Also, as a response to the current American-British aggression against their dear country, the statement read following the attack.

The attack was reported by the British military’s UK Trade Operations Center (the organization in charge of monitoring seas in the Middle East). It was stated that the strike happened when the Star Iris was sailing south via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which divides East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The ship’s captain reported that the vessel had been attacked by two missiles and said minor damages, the UKTMO informed. Both the ship and its crew are now safe. It is heading toward the upcoming port of call.

The Star Iris strike occurred after days when no Houthi attacks on vessels had been reported. What had brought about the pause is also still not evident. However, the British and US militaries have carried out multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi missile arsenals and launch sites in the territory they control.

November onward, the rebels have targeted vessels repeatedly in the Red Sea over the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza. They have also targeted vessels with tenuous/no apparent links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a crucial trade route for Asia, Europe, and the Mideast.

Houthi military action has successfully seen the disruption of trade to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East and India following the war in Gaza, with many vessel owners opting to divert tonnage from the Red Sea/Suez Canal route.

Around 50% of vessels are now diverting and the liner carriers in particular are preparing for a medium-term disruption by chartering vessels to meet demand in the Mediterranean. 

A Hapag-Lloyd spokesman confirmed the move: “The current short-term charters concluded recently by Hapag-Lloyd are being fixed due to the current Red Sea situation and the rerouting of vessels via the Cape of Good Hope and/ or replacements for ships in dry dock.”

Maersk Line, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd have fixed up to 15 vessels in the 2,500 to 5,000 TEU range for periods varying from one month to 12 months.

Jonathan Roach at shipbroker Braemar in London said that the increased activity in the charter market was mainly due to the feeder vessel market, given that there are few larger ships available, and that this had pushed the average charter period from five to six months to around 12 months.

“There has also been a slowing of vessel demolition, the numbers being scrapped are the same as last year, same number of ships, same average size, around 1,700 teu at an average age of 28 years old,” said Roach.

The slowing of the rate of demolitions, also put down to the Red Sea crisis has also had the effect of the broker’s net fleet growth expectations, with more ships now expected to be in the fleet than was previously the case.

“We expect there to be more investment to bolster regional trade,” said Roach, who said there is a looming crisis in feeder and regional type ships that have been ignored in the previous newbuilding rounds, implying a shortage of these vessels around 2027.

Lack of investment in smaller tonnage has led to the growth in the average size of feeders, with vessels up to panamax sizes now used in this regional capacity, one operator had suggested to Braemar that in the near future sizes will increase again with vessels up to 7,000 TEU used for regional trades.

However, Roach believes this is unlikely given that these medium sized vessels tend to be long and thin, and they would be taking up quay space and crane access for the larger Deepsea tonnage.

Neptune Lines is further expanding its fleet through the Genesis Project and is to build two more LNG-fuelled PCTCs from China’s Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding.

Katherine Si | Feb 02, 2024

The addition of two more 4,200 ceu LNG dual-fuel PCTC vessel is a key component of Neptune Lines' strategic plan to bolster its fleet over the next decade. The new vessels will increase cargo capacity by 36% compared to the current core fleet ships.

Continuing the successful collaboration established with the first two vessels, Neptune Lines reaffirmed its partnership with Deltamarin for the co-design of the two additional vessels and remains engaged with Fujian Mawei Shipyard for the construction, bringing its newbuilding number at Mawei to four. 

The Houthis of Yemen on Thursday said that as part of their campaign to block shipping in opposition to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, their naval forces had targeted an unidentified British merchant vessel in the Red Sea. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (abbreviated UKMTO) agency announced earlier on Thursday that an explosion was detected at a distance off the starboard side of a vessel west of Hodeidah in Yemen.

The UKMTO reported that the crew members and the vessel were safe. Whether it was the vessel that the Houthis had been aiming for was unknown.

Per a statement from the Houthi military spokesperson, the attacks on shipping are going to persist till the aggression ceases and the current siege on the Gaza Strip gets lifted. As unrest from the Israel-Hamas conflict spread throughout the region, the US and Great Britain started strikes on Houthis in Yemen. They restored the militia to their list of terrorist organizations.

Since November 19, the Houthi terrorists, backed by Iran and hold control over the most populous regions of Yemen, have been firing missiles and drones at commercial vessels.

Other regions of the Middle East were also affected by the Gaza conflict. Along the border, Hezbollah and Israel, affiliated with Iran, have been exchanging gunfire, while armed groups in Iraq have targeted American forces deployed there.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, is continuing to send tanker loads of crude and fuels through the southern Red Sea, where Houthi militants have for months been menacing merchant ships in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“We’re moving in the Red Sea with our oil and products cargoes,” Mohammed Al Qahtani, who heads Aramco’s refining and oil trading and marketing businesses, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Dhahran. The associated risks are “manageable,” he said.

The decision contrasts with swaths of other tanker owners who abandoned Red Sea trips after the US and UK bombed parts of Yemen in an effort to quell the Houthi attacks. The militants responded by saying both nations’ shipping would be targeted, alongside that of Israel prompting naval warnings for merchant vessels to stay away. 

Even before the US and UK attacks, which have been ongoing since Jan. 12, hundreds of container ships and many other merchant vessels had already veered away from the area — an unavoidable route for any carrier wanting to use the Suez Canal to cut between Asia and Europe. 

That’s lengthened voyages and delayed cargoes of everything from fuels to car parts as many of the ships go the longer way around Africa. It’s also fanning concerns about a return of inflation.

The Saudis have called for restraint in the US and UK strikes against the Houthis, trying to keep its own peace talks alive with the militants. The kingdom is seeking to end its militarily involvement in Yemen’s civil war, a conflict that has seen the rebels attack Saudi oil installations in the past.

The US and UK imposed sanctions Thursday on four Houthi officials, while China reiterated a call for attacks on shipping to be reined in.

Saudi Arabia’s location — with the Red Sea on its west and the Persian Gulf on its east — makes it somewhat tricky for OPEC’s largest producer to avoid using the area. 

Aramco regularly brings crude and fuel from the Persian Gulf, where its largest oil fields and major refineries are located. 

There have been a steady stream of shuttle tankers going through the southern Red Sea — including to and from the Jizan refinery in the Red Sea — since the conflict started, tanker tracking compiled by Bloomberg shows. A fuel cargo for Jordan also went through. 

However, Aramco’s customers have shipped no crude cargoes through the Red Sea so far this month that might at other times have gone through the waterway via Egypt to buyers in the west. Such flows are intermittent anyway because most Saudi crude goes to Asia.

At least two other tankers that loaded Saudi crude at Ras Tanura and fuel at Jubail, both in the Gulf, are making their way around Africa on the trip to Europe, rather than taking the shorter route through the Red Sea, according to ship tracking.

Saudi Aramco also uses a cross country pipeline to ship some crude from its main fields in the east to the Red Sea coast, from where it can be exported via the Suez canal, Qahtani said.

In the first half of January, Aramco shipped as much crude from its Red Sea terminal at Yanbu northwards toward Europe as it did in the whole of the previous month, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“That is also giving us huge access and optionality,” Qahtani said. “We are assessing that almost on a daily basis.”

Still, like the rest of the industry, Aramco is having to deal with fewer vessels willing to travel into the Red Sea and higher insurance costs for doing so.

“The impact is on the costs of these shipments,” said Qahtani, whose official title is Downstream President. “It’s increasing as a result of what’s happening. But overall it’s is very manageable.”

The 16,200 TEU Ane Maersk is the first in a series of 18 large methanol powered ships ordered by the Danish shipping company.

The vessel is named after Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla, the Chair of the AP Moller Foundation and AP Moller Holding and christened by her eldest granddaughter.

The Ane Maersk will be deployed on Maersk’s AE7 service between Asia and Europe from February. The vessel will be fueled with green methanol for its maiden voyage and said it continues to work diligently on sourcing green fuels for 2024 – 2025.

Maersk classifies green fuels those with either low GHG emissions -  65-80% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels, or very low GHG emissions - 80-95% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels.

“This series of vessels will have a transformative impact on our ambition to progress on our industry-leading climate ambitions. It is a visual and operational proof of our commitment to a more sustainable industry. With “Ane Mærsk” and her sister vessels we are expanding our offer to the growing number of businesses aiming to reduce emissions from their supply chains,” said Vincent Clerc, Chief Executive Officer of AP Moller-Maersk.

An unusual feature of the Ane Maersk for a large box ship is the front placement of the bridge and accommodation block which Maersk says ensures fuel efficient operations.

Maersk was first mover in methanol powered container ships, and it has quickly gained popularity as an alternative for container ship newbuild orders with 106 contracted last year according to figures from DNV. Concerns however remain over the supply of blue or green methanol as fuel given limited production at present.