Houthi Attacks On Red Sea Shipping Driving Shippers Away

 A couple of articles that spell problems for global supply chains:

• "BP halts tanker journeys through the Red Sea as Norwegian oil vessel is attacked with rockets from Yemen and US sends in warship"--Daily Mail.
• "MSC, the world's largest shipping carrier, joins shipping giants Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk in Red Sea travel pause amid attacks"--CNBC. From the article:

    MSC, the world’s largest shipping carrier, said it is no longer traveling through the Suez Canal after its container ship, the MSC PALATIUM III, was attacked Friday while transiting the Red Sea under a subcharter to Messina Line. 

    “Due to this incident and to protect the lives and safety of our seafarers, until the Red Sea passage is safe, MSC ships will not transit the Suez Canal Eastbound and Westbound. Already now, some services will be rerouted to go via the Cape of Good Hope instead.”

    MSC explained the new routing will impact the sailing schedules by several days for vessels booked for Suez transit. “We ask for your understanding under these serious circumstances,” the advisory continued.

    This announcement follows the announcement in the pause of Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Straight travel by shipping giants, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, following a series of attacks on their vessels by Iranian-backed Houthi militants from Yemen.

    Maersk, the world’s second-largest container shipping company, moves 14.8% of the world’s trade. It said it would divert ships away from the Red Sea. The Houthi group backs Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, and has said it is targeting vessels headed for Israel.

The article also notes that "[a]pproximately 12% of the world’s trade, which includes 30% of all global containers, move through the Suez Canal." This comes at the same time as the Suez Canal was seeing increased traffic due to vessels using that route to avoid the Panama Canal due to drought restrictions that has reduced the number of vessels using that Canal by 40%.