Canadian businesses and consumers may soon feel the impact of attacks on ships plying the Red Sea.
International shipping carriers have decided to avoid the important trade corridor after Houthi militants in Yemen stepped up attacks on commercial ships to denounce Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Shipping giant Maersk announced Friday that it will bypass the Suez Canal and the Red Sea by passing through South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
This route change adds 10 days of travel and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and labor expenses, which could result in increased wholesale and retail product prices.
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Yan Cimon, a business professor at Laval University, says Europe will feel the most direct effects. He specifies that some production and consumer goods destined for Canada also pass through the Suez Canal, which handles about a third of global container traffic.
Data from Drewry, a shipping industry research firm, shows that global container shipping rates have increased 61% in the past week. We are also seeing increased traffic on shipping routes between Asia and North America.
Conflict escalation
Tensions in the Middle East have also spread to the Arabian Sea. The Indian Navy announced on Friday that it has rescued 21 crew members of a ship after a distress call for hijacking and intrusion by five to six armed unknown men.
This comes after India announced in December that it would deploy forces in the Arabian Sea to protect commercial ships, which have come under increasing attack since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Since the start of this conflict, the Houthis have stepped up attacks in the Red Sea against ships they consider tied to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians bombed and besieged by Israel.
Just before the new year, the US military said it had sunk three ships of Yemen’s Houthi rebels after attacking a container ship from the Danish company Maersk in the Red Sea, which then suspended the transit of its ships in this area for two days.
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The United States announced on December 18 the formation of a coalition for the defense of maritime traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which includes around twenty countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Greece, Norway , the Netherlands and Bahrain.
With information from The Canadian Press and Agence France-Presse
2024-01-05 21:17:01
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