After suspending its voyage to the Red Sea on February 1, CMA CGM sent a container ship to the Red Sea on the 20th. On the same day, the Houthis said they had carried out a missile attack on the Israeli vessel MSC Silver II, which is actually operated by Mediterranean Shipping (MSC), near the Gulf of Aden.
The CMA CGM container ship braves the Red Sea
For the first time in nearly three weeks, the CMA CGM container ship Jules Verne (186,470 dwt) crossed the Red Sea.
The company confirmed the trip in a brief statement to the Maritime Administration, stating that the CMA CGM Jules Verne passed through the Red Sea under the escort of the Alsace frigate, in coordination with the French Navy. For the safety of our crew and vessels, CMA CGM will not comment further.
After one of its vessels was targeted by the Houthis, CMA CGM announced a moratorium on all transit activities in the Red Sea from February 1. Prior to this, the shipping line had been deciding on a case-by-case basis to send a limited number of ships through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.
CMA CGM did not give a clear explanation as to why the Jules Verne would remain on its original route, nor did it say whether any other vessels would continue to follow the route.
Guillaume Caill, senior manager of sea freight in the Benelux, warned in the Flexport freight market update on the 20thGeopolitical tensions in the Red Sea region are escalating with increased naval activity, which could last for months.
According to Sea-Intelligence, while the best chain stakeholders have quickly adapted to the new routes, the schedule reliability between the Far East and Europe has dropped to less than 50%. "Schedule reliability has become a concern, and this will continue to be the case for at least a few months. Caill added.
In the face of continuing tensions in the Red Sea region, Hapag-Lloyd has recently made another operational adjustment. On February 20, Hapag-Lloyd announced the launch of the new Türiye Red Sea Feeder Service (TRS) on the Turkey-Red Sea feeder route to address the current shipping challenges.
The TRS service will make its maiden voyage from the port of Iskenderun in Turkey on March 3 with the vessel "Leyla Kalk**an" with the following port calls: Iskenderun (Turkey) - Mersin (Turkey) - Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) - Aqaba (Jordan) - Iskenderun (Turkey).
The Houthis have announced their latest targets!
Recently, the Houthis have once again escalated their tactics and frequency. According to statistics, three ships have already been attacked in a week. And just yesterday, the Houthis once again unveiled their new targets, this time directly targeting the largest container shipping company, MSC.
On the evening of February 20, local time, Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarraya issued a statement saying that the Houthis had used multiple missiles to attack the general cargo ship "MSC Silver II" operated and managed by MSC.
Security analysts confirmed reports of an attack on a cargo ship bound for Somalia. The vessel is a Liberian-registered general cargo vessel named "MSC Silver II" (37,500 dwt) and is managed by the Mediterranean Shipping Management Company. The ship is equipped with a deck crane and can carry about 800 containers.
The MSC Silver II was reported to be undamaged and its Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals indicate that the vessel is currently docked in Berbera, Somalia.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarri called the MSC Silver II an Israeli vessel.
But according to the Equasis database, the vessel is operated by MSC and owned by Silverfjord Oceanway, whose address is listed at the Swiss giant's MSC ship management office in Cyprus. Tracking data shows that the ship has not docked at an Israeli port since 2020. There is no obvious connection between the ship and Israel.
In this regard, the maritime security company Ambrey Analytics pointed out that it may have something to do with the fact that MSC has been working with the Israeli container ship operator ZIM. In September last year, ZIM announced that it had reached a cooperation agreement with MSC on a number of **. The company's ships regularly call at Israeli ports.