Shipping companies are considering returning to the Suez Canal now that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said they will stop attacking Red Sea shipping vessels.
According to the Associated Press, the declaration came in an undated letter from Houthi military leader Yusuf Hassan al-Madani, shared by Hamas leaders online, in which al-Mandani said the group is pausing its attacks on the Red Sea transit route in light of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. However, the AP emphasized that this did not constitute an official confirmation that they were halting their Red Sea campaign.
Nevertheless, if the cessation of hostilities holds, the shipping industry could see “seismic” impacts, according to Xeneta Chief Analyst Peter Sand.
Though Sand said in a 11 November press release that he did not expect to see “an imminent return to 2023 levels” of transit through the Suez Canal, he said that some carriers would soon start using the passage but that it was risky.
“Details are sketchy, and you cannot base the safety of crews, ships and cargo on the word of Houthi militia,” Sand warned. “Carriers need far more assurance than that and, perhaps more importantly, so do insurance companies.”
Attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea began in late 2023 and resulted in most major shipping companies pausing use of the Suez Canal route.
Earlier this year, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) began increased effort to bring stability back to the route, which has suffered major losses thanks to the conflict.
Even after a 6 May ceasefire between the U.S. and Houthis, which was intended to reopen the route for shipping, many companies did not return. At the time, CEO of Copenhagen, Denmark-headquartered A.P. Moller-Maersk Vincent Clerc told The New York Times that he believed his company was “pretty far from the threshold” of safety that it would require before it would bring its vessels back to the route.
A 6 November meeting between major shipping lines and Egypt’s SCA Chairman Ossama Rabiee telling company representatives that “this is an opportune moment to return to transiting through the Suez Canal once more.”
At that meeting, company leaders – including Clerc – expressed their intention to return to the canal “after holding discussions with the SCA and studying all the indicators.”
“We want Maersk to be the first shipping line to fully resume navigation, ushering in the return of the situation back to normal,” Moller-Maersk COO Rabab Boulos added.
Not all companies were willing to commit to returning yet.
A representative of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), for instance, told FreightWaves that “the situation in the Suez Canal remains fluid and the security situation is unclear."
"In order to guarantee the safety of our seafarers and to ensure consistency and predictability of service for our customers, MSC will continue to transit via the Cape of Good Hope until further notice," the representative said.
