Two oil tankers that had diverted away from the Red Sea have turned back and passed through the Bab Al Mandab Strait, ship-tracking data shows, though tensions in the region continued to disrupt global shipping and trade.
The vessels’ return, as tracked by LSEG and Kpler, comes nearly a week after the United States and Britain launched strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen in retaliation for the militant group’s protracted attacks on commercial shipping since November.
Until the strikes and despite the Houthi attacks, the majority of vessels continued to traverse the Red Sea, but more ships are diverting course because of escalating tensions.
It was not clear what prompted the two tankers’ return, but some industry analysts said vessels willing to continue using the Red Sea route might be able to profit from trepidation in other corners of the freight market.
“It could be the case that some tanker owners are willing to go through the Red Sea if the freight (cost) is right,” said Alberto Ayuso Martin, head of research at Spain-based Medco Shipbrokers.
Overall traffic of oil-laden tankers through Bab Al Mandab was 58 per cent lower than the 2023 average over January 13-17, said Mary Melton of analytics firm Vortexa, extending a 38pc fall prior to the strikes between Januyary 6 and 10.
Tankers transporting “clean” fuels such as diesel and jet fuel have been more severely affected than those carrying residual fuels, known as “dirty” because of their higher toxicity, and crude oil, Vortexa’s Melton said.
The two Aframax tankers that passed through Bab Al Mandab on January 17 after previously turning away from the Red Sea are the Indonesia-flagged Gamsunoro and the Marshall Islands-flagged Free Spirit.
Both tankers are carrying heavy fuels and last called at Fujairah – one of the biggest fuel oil hubs in the world – in the UAE, the data shows.
The owners of the cargoes and their destinations are unclear, but both vessels had signalled for Saudi Arabian Red Sea ports in the past week.
Saudi oil giant Aramco can bypass Bab Al Mandab because of an oil pipeline connecting Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil facilities and its western coast, chief executive Amin Nasser said. He added that oil products exports could face diversions.
As many as 15 oil tankers were taking the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope in either direction, which can add up to three weeks to voyages between Asia and Europe.
A further seven remain in the Gulf of Aden or in the northern half of the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, weather-related disruption at ports in northern Europe and the diversion of vessels away from the Red Sea are causing congestion at container terminals, AP Moller-Maersk said in an update to customers yesterday.
In northern Europe, winter storms and the effects of the recent holiday season have led to terminal closures and navigation stoppages, the company said.
“Winter weather conditions as well as the Red Sea contingencies are expected to affect operations across Europe and Hub terminals,” Maersk said.
“This is leading to increased yard density across terminals and customers are kindly asked to pick up their units as soon as possible after discharge to support fluidity,” it said.
Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc on Wednesday said the disruption to global shipping caused by the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea will probably last at least a few months.
“While we 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,” the company said in its update yesterday.
Maersk said it also offers customers the option to shift some cargo from vessels to air freight at ports in Oman and the UAE to fly goods to final destinations in Europe or the United States.
Container shipping rates for key global trade routes have soared, with US and UK air strikes on Yemen stirring fears of a prolonged disruption to global trade traffic in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest routes.
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