Danish container liner giant AP Moller Maersk is putting on hold for at least two days plans to gradually resume sailings through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, following an unusually tenacious attack by the Houthis on one of its vessels over the weekend.
“Danish maritime transport giant Maersk … announced suspending for 48 hours the transit of its fleet through … the Red Sea,” French news agency AFP said on X on Sunday.
No such statement exists on the company’s website yet and Maersk spokespersons were not available for comment.
The company has also not made any official statement yet about the incident that led to the reported decision.
Maersk, which earlier this week resumed shipping operations through the Red Sea, saw its 15,300-teu container ship Maersk Hangzhou (built 2018) repeatedly attacked by the Houthis over the weekend — first by a missile and then by armed assailants on small boats that attempted to board it, as TradeWinds reported earlier on Sunday.
Unlike most of the 23 attacks that the Houthis have carried out against commercial ships since 19 November, the strike against the Maersk Hangzhou was unusually tenacious and had a bloody outcome.
According to US central command (Centcom), US Navy helicopters that rushed to assist the vessel early on Sunday came under Houthi attack and returned fire, sinking three of the four small Houthi boats and killing their crews.
The Houthi missile and speed boat attacks against the Maersk Hangzhou came one day after the government of Denmark, where Maersk is based, said it would send a frigate to support the US-led, Operation Prosperity Guardian against the Houthis.
In a statement early on Sunday, Danish Foreign Minister Lokke Rasmussen said that the attack on the Maersk ship only strengthened his country’s resolve to deploy a frigate against the Houthis.
