The main Japanese shipping companies have decided to change the routes of their ships to avoid the Red Sea due to the increasingly frequent attacks by the Houthis, who seek to prevent ships that trade with Israel from sailing off their coasts. The decision adds to the strategy followed by other companies in recent weeks and is causing a crisis in international trade with still unforeseeable consequences.
As reported today by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the companies Nippon Yusen (NYK Line), Mitsui O.S.K. and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line), the three largest Japanese shipping companies, have already altered the course of their freighters to and from Europe to avoid the Red Sea and thus avoid becoming a target of these groups. The aforementioned shipping companies, as well as the container shipping company Ocean Network Express, which operate jointly, are diverting the trajectory of their ships towards South Africa, where they circle the Cape of Good Hope, despite the fact that the shortest waterway connecting Asia with Europe is the Suez Canal, which passes through the Red Sea.
The costs of blocking the Egyptian crossing to the world economy are difficult to calculate. During the first week of the conflict alone, global maritime freight costs rose nearly 10%.
The decision comes hours after the United States Department of Defense announced that a Japanese-owned chemical tanker (flagged in Liberia and operated by a Dutch company) was attacked last Saturday in the Indian Ocean by a drone apparently coming from Iran. The incident caused a fire but left no injuries among its 21 crew members: 20 of Indian nationality and one of Vietnamese nationality.
The ship had left Saudi Arabia last Tuesday and was heading to the Indian port of Mangalore when it was attacked, but decided to redirect to Mumbai to undergo repairs and assess the damage with the help of the Indian Coast Guard, according to details published by the Japanese news agency Kyodo. According to American media, this freighter could have some type of relationship with Israel.
The recent escalation of attacks launched from Yemeni territory, which has included ship hijackings, puts global trade in check on the crucial Red Sea and Arabian Sea route.