The threat by Houthi rebels to target any vessel heading for Israel will put further pressure on war risk insurance rates for ships trading with the country.
AP Moller-Maersk is the latest to add a surcharge on shippers for the higher cost of war risk insurance since the outbreak of hostilities between Hamas and Israel.
It added a $50 per teu charge to account for the higher insurance costs of trading to Israel, following similar charges applied by Zim and Hapag Lloyd.
At the weekend, Houthi spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said any ship calling on Israel would be targeted for attack.
He wrote on X: “The Yemeni Armed Forces announce that they will prevent navigating all the ships heading to the Zionist entity [Israel] from any nationality.”
War risk rates were already strengthening in the Red Sea towards 0.1% after trading between 0.03 to 0.05% of insured values in recent weeks.
The rate rise follows last week’s attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels on Israeli and other shipping at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
Underwriters said they are attempting to evaluate the increased risk to shipping heading for Israel following the latest Houthi comments.
But they point out that to some extent the increased risk faced by ships trading to Israel has already been written into current war risk rates.
Calm concerns
Since the outbreak of hostilities, Israel has attempted to calm concerns, saying all its ports are safe and open.
The ports of main ports of Ashdod and Haifa are continuing to operate as normal.
The Ministry of Transport & Road Safety said it is working to minimise the risk to shipping through its Iron Dome mobile all-weather air defence system. It described the system as “super effective”.
“The bottom line is, despite several previous conflicts, no damage was sustained to any calling ships, ie, zero incidents,” the ministry said.
It also pointed out that marine insurance is included in its government-run property tax fund, which is used to compensate for war-related losses.
The ministry said the fund would cover “all vessels en route to or calling at Israel”.
