Yemeni forces’ operations in Red Sea cause bankruptcy of “Israeli” port
OCCUPIED QUDS, July 13 (YPA) – The economic effects of the Yemeni strikes on shipping movement in the Red Sea have become clear with the port of Eilat “Umm al-Rashash” requesting financial assistance from the government of the Zionist enemy entity after a decrease in shipping volumes by 85%.
In a meeting with the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee on July 7, the company’s CEO, Gideon Gilbert, said that there had been no activity at the port for eight months and no revenue had been received.
The port deals mainly with bulk goods, potash imports, and cars, in addition to some containers. It is much smaller than the ports of occupied Palestine on the Mediterranean Sea, whether in Ashdod or Haifa, but the effects of the attacks by the Yemeni armed forces clearly affected trade in the Zionist enemy entity.
More broadly, Yemeni military operations have diverted hundreds of container ships each week into a much longer journey, some 4,000 miles longer, around the Cape to Europe, increasing fuel costs and emissions, with the first increase in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) that was introduced in January this year.
Container purchase and sale transactions rose again in the first half of 2024, as transport and shipping companies reacted to the booming freight and leasing markets. After transactions declined in the second half of 2023, more than half a million twenty-foot equivalent units were traded in the first six months of 2024, according to the analyst.
As ship operators were searching for every available ship in order to effectively meet the demand for services traveling around the Cape of Good Hope and maintain weekly schedules.
According to Alphaliner, 141 ships carrying 572,600 TEU were traded between January and June, at a rate of 23 units per month, compared to 15 sales per month in the second half of 2023.
Transport companies initially believed that the shipping disruption in the Red Sea would be short-lived and did not immediately respond to the rise in prices in late 2023.
Despite the influx of 1.6 million new TEUs in the first half of 2024, carriers sought to acquire more tons in the used cargo market in order to fill schedule gaps and benefit from fixed prices.
Alphaliner also reported that almost every available vessel is now in gainful employment with the idle fleet falling to 0.4% in May, and while the idle container fleet has increased slightly over the past six weeks, the number of idle vessels remains less than 1% of the total fleet.
The port of “Eilat” or “Umm al-Rashash” is located on the southern coast of occupied Palestine on the Red Sea, and connects occupied Palestine to Asia and the Indian Ocean without the need to cross the Suez Canal, but shipping volumes through it have been declining since their increase in the fourth quarter of 2022, as the facility dealt with 124 thousand tons, which represents double the levels of the first quarter of that year.
*Source: IRNA Agency
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