Tag: Red Sea

According to GMS's latest weekly ship-recycling report, despite Chinese New Year Holidays, a pervading theme of an unrelenting dearth in the overall availability of tonnage across global ship recycling markets has been enduring for several quarters now, resulting in another dry and dreary week of market inactivity and silence across all recycling destinations.

Yemen's Houthis have claimed responsibility for a missile attack on the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier "Lycavitos" in the Gulf of Aden, as Reuters reports. 

Additional grain vessels have been rerouted from the Suez Canal to take routes around the Cape of Good Hope the previous week due to ongoing apprehensions about attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Reuters highlights. 

According to news, the Houthis, supported by Iran, have asserted accountability for a dual missile assault on a freight vessel in the Red Sea on 12th February. This incident marks the most recent attack since November as they continue to enforce a blockade on the crucial trade route.

On its latest weekly ship-recycling report, GMS finds that, despite the Pakistani & Bangladeshi markets stabilizing & displaying a far greater aggression at the bidding tables over the last 5 weeks (that too at ever improving rates), in addition to the long awaited Chinese New Year holidays that have finally descended across the world, it has been a remarkably quieter start to 2024 for ship recycling than many had anticipated.

According to Bloomberg, merchant ships owned by China are receiving substantial reductions in their insurance premiums while traversing the Red Sea. This development underscores the impact of Houthi attacks in the region, affecting the business interests of vessels linked to Western entities.

The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), confirmed that the global marine insurance market is continuing to support trade in the Red Sea and the Ukraine/Black Sea area, at its annual winter meeting in London.

According to Reuters, the Panama Canal Authority does not anticipate implementing additional restrictions on vessel transits until at least April, at which point it will assess water levels following the conclusion of the dry season.

Attacks on ships in the Red Sea and drought in the Panama Canal area have more than quadrupled shipping prices since late 2023. According to Swiss Re, impacts could worsen should disruptions persist into the peak shipping season in the second half of the year.

In January, U.S. crude oil exports to Asia fell to 1 million barrels per day, marking the lowest level in more than two years. This decline was attributed to elevated freight rates and the availability of more competitively-priced Middle Eastern oils, which resulted in reduced shipments, Reuters highlights.