World’s Six Largest Shipping Companies Suspend Red Sea Shipping

The world’s six largest shipping companies announced they would halt shipments through the Red Sea after Iran-backed Houthi terrorists launched a series of drone and missile attacks toward the end of last week.

Many of these ships will now sail around the Cape of Good Hope, adding weeks to their travel time and reducing effective global shipping capacity.

• The world’s largest container shipping company, Swiss-Italian Mediterranean Shipping Co., announced it would halt shipments through the Red Sea on December 15.
• The second-largest, Danish A.P. Moller-Maersk, also said on December 15 it would pause journeys through the Red Sea.
• The third-largest, French shipping group cma cgm, announced it would stop container shipments on December 16.
• The fourth-largest, China’s Orient Overseas Container Line, which is a part of cosco, stopped accepting cargo to and from Israel on December 16.
• The fifth-largest, German Hapag-Lloyd, said it would investigate pausing sailing via the Red Sea on December 15.
• The sixth-largest, Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp., announced it would temporarily stop accepting Israeli cargo and immediately suspend navigation through the Red Sea on December 18.

One sixth of all commercial shipping passes through the Bab el-Mandeb into the Red Sea, and these six shipping companies represent the majority of all container shipping.

Houthi attacks: The companies made their decisions to halt shipments through the Red Sea after many of their container ships were attacked by Houthi terrorist located in Yemen.

• On December 14, AP Møller-Mærsk’s vessel, Maersk Gibraltar, was involved in a “near-miss incident” when a missile was fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.
• On December 15, Hapag-Lloyd said its vessel Al Jasrah was struck by a Houthi drone, causing a fire on board the ship.
• The same day, Houthi forces launched two ballistic missiles towards msc Palatium iii that caused another fire on board that ship.

These are just a few of the incidents in a long string of Houthi attacks on both commercial vessels and military ships in the Red Sea since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Oil and gas: In addition to these six companies, one of the world’s top 10 energy companies, oil and gas giant British Petroleum, also announced on Monday it would temporarily pause all transit through the Red Sea.

He was right: In 2015, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned of the dangerous consequences of the Iran-backed Houthis’ infiltration of Yemen.

Now that Iran controls Yemen, it can virtually close or open the spigot on Middle East oil bound for Europe. And Europe is taking notice! …

The Houthis’ takeover of Yemen was not just an organic revolution. It was part of a deliberate and calculated Iranian strategy to conquer the Red Sea. This strategy is revealed in a powerful prophecy in the biblical book of Daniel.

Learn more: Read “Iran Gets a Stranglehold on the Middle East.”