Maersk Diverts All Its Vessels from Red Sea ‘For the Foreseeable Future’

Danish shipping giant Maersk has decided to divert all its vessels due to transit the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden south around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa for the foreseeable future.

In a statement issued on January 5, Maersk said the situation in the Red Sea remains highly volatile, and all available intelligence at hand confirm that the security risk continues to be at a significantly elevated level.

The company decided to pause all vessels bound for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on January 2, in light of the recent incident involving Maersk Hangzhou and ongoing developments in the area with Yemen's Houthi militants’ attacks.

“By suspending voyages through the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden, we hope to bring our customers more consistency and predictability despite the associated delays that come with the re-routing.

“While we continue to hope for a sustainable resolution in the near-future and do all we can to contribute towards it, we do encourage customers to prepare for complications in the area to persist and for there to be significant disruption to the global network,” Maersk said in a statement.