A Chinese-owned tanker carrying Russian crude to the Indian subcontinent was targeted by a barrage of Houthi missiles on Saturday but continued its course despite a fire breaking out on board.
According to the US military, the Yemeni rebel group launched five anti-ship ballistic missiles at the 115,500-dwt Huang Pu (built 2009) in the Red Sea between 02.50 am and 04.25 am local Sanaa time on 23 March.
The fifth missile made impact and caused a fire on the vessel, which was extinguished within 30 minutes, said US Central Command (Centcom).
The Huang Pu issued a distress call, but did not request assistance.
“No casualties were reported and the vessel resumed its course,” Centcom added, describing the Panamanian-flag Huang Pu as a “Chinese-owned [and] Chinese-operated” ship.
Vessel trackers show the Huang Pu carrying a cargo of crude from Ust Luga in Russia to Pakistan or the west coast of India.
This suggests that a report by Bloomberg earlier this week, about Russian and Chinese negotiators reaching an agreement with the Houthis not to hit their ships, could be wrong or reflect information taken out of context.
“The Houthis attacked the MV Huang Pu despite previously stating they would not attack Chinese vessels,” Centcom said in a social media post early on Sunday.
The official and long-stated Houthi policy has been to attack only ships linked with Israel, the US and the UK, to pressure them to stop the war being waged against the Hamas group in Gaza.
In all the attacks they have publicly assumed responsibility for so far, the Houthis have been describing their targets as “American”, “Israeli” or “British” ships.
In reality, however, several of these vessels were primarily linked to other nations.
That includes the most high-profile casualties of the Houthi campaign — the sunk 32,300-dwt Rubymar (built 1997) and 50,500-dwt True Confidence (built 2011), which suffered the first fatal seafarer casualties — which are understood to be controlled by Lebanese interests.
It is unclear whether the Houthis have been attacking such non-Western vessels by design or mistake.
On 18 March, China and Russia did not prevent the United Nations Security Council from issuing another strongly worded press statement against the Houthis.
On the other hand, the Huang Pu attack could be down to the Houthis relying on outdated information to define the ship’s nationality, as they have done in other cases in the past.
Until late September 2023, it was registered with UK-based Union Maritime under the name Anavatos II. As TradeWinds reported at the time, it was sold to undisclosed owners.
According to data banks, the ship emerged in January as Taurus II under management of Hong Kong-based Ambra Ltd.
It is only since February that it has been trading under its current name Huang Pu under the management of another Hong Kong-based entity, Hera Gam Ltd.
The attack on the Huang Pu was not the only Houthi-related incident on Saturday.
Later that morning, the destroyer USS Carney “engaged” six Houthi unmanned aerial vehicles Centcom said.
“Five crashed into the Red Sea and one flew inland into Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” it said.
