I can’t turn the ship because of the customer’s notice… “Take risks instead of costs”
Qatari ships still use the Suez Canal… In oil prices, the US daily New York Times (NYT) reported on the 5th (local time) that “pro-Iran Yemeni rebels Houthis are carrying out attacks on civilian ships passing through the Suez Canal, but some shipping companies are unable to leave the Red Sea due to concerns about additional costs.” reported.
According to data company Kfler, the volume of diesel and gasoline transported through the Suez Canal in December last year, when the Houthis attacked civilian ships, decreased by about 40% compared to October, two months earlier.
In fact, large shippers such as Denmark’s Maersk, the world’s second largest shipping company, and British global energy company BP have announced that they will suspend Red Sea operations.
However, relatively small shipping companies still use the Red Sea route to access Europe via the Suez Canal.
The biggest reason they remain in the Red Sea is cost.
It is estimated that if shipping companies take a detour around Africa instead of the Suez Canal route they have been using, it will take up to two weeks more time and costs.
“If we had the ability to do so, we would avoid shipping through the Red Sea,” Bastard, CEO of Frontline, a shipping company in Oslo, Norway, said, but said that was not always possible.
He said that this shipping company is nothing more than a ‘taxi’ that moves according to the requests of customers such as large oil companies or trading companies, and that once the voyage begins, it is not easy for the captain or the company to change the route.
He said that in order to turn a ship that is already in operation, “a war-like situation must occur,” adding, “It may still look dangerous from the outside, but it is not a war situation right now.”
CEO Bastard said that the fact that there are still many ships other than this shipping company passing through the Suez Canal is one of the factors that makes people take the gamble of ‘will our ships become targets of attack?’
In addition, Bonda added his own calculation that the shipping company is unlikely to be the target of an attack given that it has not recently made any transactions with Israel, which has a hostile relationship with the Houthis.
As many ships continue to operate as usual, and other ships quickly find alternative routes, some analysts say that the Houthis’ attack has a relatively small impact on international oil prices.
Contrary to concerns that if the Red Sea route is blocked, crude oil transportation will be disrupted and oil prices will soar, international oil prices have so far been relatively stable.
The NYT analyzed that major players maintain relatively healthy crude oil reserves and that as global economic growth slows, demand for crude oil decreases, so the factors leading to an increase in international oil prices are not significant.
In addition, large oil tankers have been using other routes due to the narrowness of the Suez Canal route even before the Houthi attack, and ships belonging to Qatar, which is friendly with Hamas, are less likely to be the target of Houthi attacks and operate as usual, leading to lower oil prices. The impact is becoming smaller.
“The market is not worried about oil supply risks,” said Richard Bronze of research firm Energy Aspects. “It will be a long time before oil prices continue to rise again.”
/yunhap news
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2024-01-06 11:56:01
