Hapag-Lloyd extends Red Sea diversion until 9 January

The German container line will continue to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope for a week at least, and plans to conduct a re-assessment of the Red Sea situation after 9 January.

PHOTO: Hapag-Lloyd container ship in Singapore. Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd's crisis committee was in session today to review the situation in light of the recent events unfolding in the Red Sea. The committee announced its decision to continue sailing around the Cape of Good Hope till 9 January.

A company spokesperson told ENGINE that the firm continues to “monitor the situation closely” every day. 

Last week, the container line’s crisis committee convened to assess whether vessels would be allowed to resume sailing in the Red Sea. At that time, the company stated that it was still unsafe for its ships to transit through the Red Sea and opted to carry out further reviews to decide whether to resume Red Sea transits.

The vessel diversions have been costly for Hapag-Lloyd, with the company representative stating that it costed "a double-digit amount of million USD only for bunker fuel" in the two weeks between 18-31 December.

Hapag-Lloyd was among the first container firms to announce vessel diversions around Africa on 18 December to avoid escalating tensions by the Houthi militia in the Red Sea.  

By Manjula Nair

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