Since late last year, Maersk and several other shipping companies have had to suspend the route from the Red Sea to the Suez Canal due to unrest and frequent drone and missile attacks on cargo ships. Recently, Maersk issued the latest warning that the Red Sea crisis has not only not been alleviated in the past few months, but has become more serious and complex.
Maersk rents over 125,000 emergency containers
Maersk stated that the impact of the situation in the Red Sea is expanding and continues to cause damage to the entire industry. The complexity of the situation in the Red Sea has increased over the past few months, and to ensure the safety of crews, ships and cargo, Maersk will continue to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope for the foreseeable future.
However, as the risk area has expanded, the attack range has also spread to farther seas. This forces our vessels to further extend their voyages, resulting in increased time and costs for our customers’ cargo to reach their destination.
The knock-on effects of this situation include port congestion, ship delays, and shortages of equipment, shipping capacity, and containers. Maersk expects the industry-wide capacity loss in the second quarter from the Far East to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean to be 15-20%.
In this regard, Maersk has also taken measures to deal with the current situation, hoping to speed up navigation and increase shipping capacity. To secure the supply chain, Maersk has leased more than 125,000 additional containers.
At the same time, since the extended voyage has increased fuel usage by 40%, Maersk will charge relevant surcharges to customers to offset the additional costs.
However, what is concerning is that some major shipping companies such as ONE, HMM and Hapag-Lloyd are still discussing growth plans, which is to some extent irrational behavior. It warned that if shipping companies continue to expand their fleets without taking into account changes in market demand, this could prolong the pain for the industry.
