42 percent!: Trade via the Suez Canal collapsed

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A UN representative announced this on Thursday. “We are very concerned about attacks on shipping traffic in the Red Sea,” said Jan Hoffmann of the UN World Conference on Trade and Development.

Hoffmann said that the number of container ships passing through the Suez Canal each week decreased by 67 percent compared to the previous year. Oil transportation fell 18 percent.

The Red Sea and the Suez Canal are the central trade routes of world trade; Normally, approximately 20,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal each year. Many major shipping companies have decided to avoid this route due to attacks by Houthi rebels on ships in the region. If container ships now have to pass around the southern tip of Africa on the way between Asia and Europe, the journey could be extended by another week, and the detour would also incur additional fuel costs running into hundreds of thousands of euros.

Since mid-November, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked numerous ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that they accuse of having ties to Israel. The militia sees itself as part of the self-proclaimed “Axis of Resistance” directed against Israel, of which radical Islamist Hamas is a member. In response to the attacks, the US and UK have been attacking Houthi positions in Yemen since January.

(SDA)

Source :Blick