Maersk suspends additional services in the Red Sea: Danish shipping giant Maersk has reshuffled routes on its ME2 service that connects the western Mediterranean to the Gulf and India, diverting them via the Cape of Good Hope, according to a statement yesterday. The revised rotation will see westbound calls to Salalah and Jeddah suspended until further notice. On Friday, the company said that it will no longer load new cargo from Somalia’s Berbera or Yemen’s Hodeida and Aden, in addition to omitting Djibouti from its Blue Nile Express (BNX) service. Maersk cited risks to seafarers and cargo on Red Sea transits as the reason behind the reshuffles.

Hapag-Lloyd finds overland solution to Red Sea disruptions: Hapag Lloyd is set to introduceland corridors through Saudi Arabia to minimize the impact of disruptions to client businesses, as the German carrier continues to reroute shipments via the Cape of Good Hope until further notice, it said on Friday. Hapag Lloyd is looking to establish a land route linking the UAE’s port in Jebel Ali and Saudi Arabia’s ports Dammam and Jubail to an ocean shuttle service operating out of Jeddah. The firm said that it will “continue to expand this inland network within the GCC.”

Suez Shipyard — a company operating under the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) — has received Greek-owned Zografia to carry out repairs, following damage incurred in a Houthi attack, according to a statement by authority head Osama Rabie yesterday. Suez Shipyard operates one of the largest floating docks in the region, in addition to a dry dock that is used for the repair of medium-sized vessels, the statement added.

THE VIEW FROM THE MARKET FLOOR

Shipping delays are tightening crude supply: Red Sea disruptions, surging Chinese demand, and supply outages are boosting competition for oil supplies that do not have to transit via the Suez Canal, Reuters reported citing LSEG data and analysts. As supply tightens, the dynamics of the Brent crude futures market is changing, with spot prices overtaking future contracts — in what the industry refers to as ‘backwardation’ — as markets rush to seize available oil supplies to hedge against future shortfalls.

Asian refiners are looking to diversify suppliers in a bid to ensure steady and cheap oil flows amid Red Sea disruptions, particularly if the situation escalates, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. Asian refiners may begin looking to scale back agreements from Middle Eastern suppliers witnessing an increase in delivery costs and look towards alternative sources in the US, Africa, and South America, in addition to expanding storage infrastructure to hedge against supply shocks.

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