The Red Sea crisis and shipping
THE Philippines is more than 5,000 miles from the Red Sea, yet we are directly affected by what happens there. Because it is connected to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, it is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, carrying maritime traffic between Europe and Asia.
That heavily traveled waterway has become the most dangerous. The Houthis are targeting ships on the Red Sea in response to Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza. The BBC reported that just last week, the Houthi claimed a “direct and accurate” missile attack on the US-owned MV Genco Picardy, the latest commercial ship to fall victim to Houthi assault.
To avoid the conflict zone, vessels are forced to take a 4,000-mile detour around the Cape of Good Hope, threatening to disrupt the global supply. Normally, about 15 percent of the world’s trade passes through the Red Sea; now, the delays and rising insurance costs are impeding the delivery of many essential goods.
Sea-Intelligence, a maritime advisory firm, recently made a study that shows that the longer transit around the Cape of Good Hope is now disrupting the availability of vessels to pick up containers at ports.
The current drop in vessel capacity is the second largest in recent years, according to Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence. “[The Red Sea crisis] is the largest single event, even larger than the early pandemic impact,” that has caused the capacity decline, Murphy said.
The delays in the arrival of containers are impacting some companies’ supply chains. “Threats to Red Sea shipping are a threat to maritime commerce worldwide,” said Steve Lamar, CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. “Delays and cost increases are mounting. Although companies are exploring alternative shipping options, adverse knock-on effects continue to disrupt logistics globally. More needs to be done to ensure the safety of crews and security of cargo by eliminating existing or future threats.”
The positive side, Murphy said, is that the maritime industry today has new vessels available for work, whereas during the pandemic, all vessels were being used, and coping with demands was difficult. These new vessels could be deployed to increase vessel availability.
We hope that more lessons like these, learned during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Suez Canal disruption in 2021, will help us face the challenges in case the conflict in the Red Sea escalates further.
We are more urgently concerned about the 17 Filipino seafarers who were part of the 25-man crew on the
Galaxy Leader, the car carrier raided by the Houthis on Nov. 19, 2023. Only one of the Filipinos, Gelienor Pacheco, had been released on November 24.
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Officer in Charge Hans Leo Cacdac said, “Efforts are still underway to talk to the foreign governments who are helping us. I think the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) had already mentioned the Omani government is helping us.”
More recently, the oil tanker St. Nikolas was seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman several days ago. It had a 19man crew on board, 18 of whom were Filipino seafarers. The Iranian Navy said the seizure was in retaliation to the United States’ confiscation of the same vessel earlier, with its cargo of Iranian oil.
DMW assured that it had received positive news the 18 Filipino seafarers were safe and unharmed, based on a photo sent as proof of life.
Our thoughts and prayers are with these Filipino seafarers being held hostage. We hope that they are not only physically safe and unharmed but also mentally, emotionally, and psychologically well. We, therefore, welcome the news that DMW has opened the lines of communication with all of the families of the seafarers and that the DFA has requested the Iranian government to allow the Philippines’ representatives to visit the seafarers.
Above all, may all wars end. Many authors and statesmen have said, in different ways, that nobody wins a war. Brock Chisholm, former director general of the World Health Organization, said, “No one wins a war. It is true, there are degrees of loss, but no one wins.” May we learn from this sobering thought.