Maritime security company Ambrey says any change in Red Sea shipping patterns will not happen overnight.
Co-founder and director John Thompson views the eventual normalisation of the security situation, following vessel rerouting to avoid Houthi missiles, as consisting of two elements.
The first step will take place when peace breaks out in the Middle East, “which I think is some way off”, he explained.
“You’re not going to see a reduction in the pressure that Houthis want to apply. But also, I think shipping doesn’t like constant instability,” Thompson said.
“So all the charter parties now are being written around the Cape and to go back [via the Suez Canal], they’re going to need security around going back and staying back. And that’s going to take some time, I think, for the business itself,” he added.
Oil majors have now shifted to buying their oil two weeks earlier, because of extended tanker journey times, the co-founder explained.
“They’ve all shifted their business model around the Cape and they won’t shift back until they’re sure that they can go back and stay back,” Thompson said.
Ambrey is cooperating with ports agency and maritime service group Inchcape Shipping Services to offer a combined service aimed at enhancing safety measures and improve commercial outcomes for the industry.
Inchcape chief commercial officer Svend Stenberg, who joined in January, was chief operating officer at Danish owner Monjasa when six crew members from its 13,700-dwt tanker Monjasa Reformer (built 2003) were kidnapped off Nigeria in March 2023. They were safely released in May.
“Having been so close to the case of Monjasa Reformer and seeing that upfront, we could have used teams like Ambrey’s. We could have used the training, the awareness, the practicality,” Stenberg told TradeWinds.
“It went really well. But as with everything else, the more you train, the more practical you are, the better prepared you are. And unfortunately, what’s going on around the world today in different places suggests that we need to be on our toes to keep the seafarers safe,” he added.
Changeable world
Thompson told TradeWinds the world is “so changeable right now”.
“Everyone’s thinking of the Red Sea, but just look at the Black Sea and what’s going on there in the last few years, or what may or may not happen in the South China Sea next,” he said.
“You’ve got to really think about it from pre-fixture through fixture all the way through to the end of the voyage,” Thompson added. “And what you do with bringing us two together is we can do that.”
Thompson said if there is an emerging problem in South America because of what’s going on there at the moment politically, the combined team can respond to that. “Senegal’s got problems there with the government melting down. And we can we can respond very quickly,” he said.
Ambrey has carried out a lot of evacuation and crisis work in shipping, Thompson added.
People were evacuated from Sudan last year during the civil war and the company rescued people from beaches during the wildfires in Hawaii.
