Red Sea is now largely closed to traffic. That’s 8.8 million bpd of daily oil transit, and nearly 380 million tons of daily cargo transit. Global traffic now will be rerouted around Cape of Good Hope, adding 40% to voyage distance (and even more to cost)
BP, Evergreen, Euronav Halt Sailings Through Chaotic Red Sea As Insurers Demand ‘War Risk Coverage’
Suez update: 46 container ships now have diverted around the Cape of Good Hope rather than transiting the Red Sea.
John Konrad is a “former drillship captain, author of Fire On The Horizon“.
I’m a merchant ship Captain who runs a large news company for commercial shipping.
Five years ago I had zero interest in Naval or military affairs but this guy @mercoglianos just kept calling me telling me shipping is in BIG trouble if the US Navy keeps ignoring the concerns of the security shipping industry.
I’ll be completely honest, I ignored him for years. We had the strongest Navy on earth, and nobody was close. How could this be that big of a concern?
I wasn’t completely oblivious. I’ve listened to @cdrsalamander’s podcast every week for over a decade. He gave similar warnings.
I even wrote early articles about China’s islands building campaigns and the US Merchant Marines’s aging sealift fleet. But those were mostly isolated concerns.
But Sal did not stop calling. Slowly I started putting in a heavy amount of work into naval and military research… and unfortunately I found that Sal was .
Something to keep an eye on.
If only North America had huge barely tapped oil deposits that could ensure that we would never be held to ransom by OPEC nations or those who had throttle back the supply.
We appear addicted to conflict oil. Not to worry … once fossil fuels are completely outlawed by the suicidal West … all will be well …
…and this is why our energy industry is being sabotaged.
Peter Zeihan has been predicting this for over a year. He is releasing a YouTube series described here: https://youtu.be/lf6YnP9ZcAk?si=R8VE3IEwCgeFWouN
He has predicted that the US will stop policing maritime traffic. What do they care if shipments of oil and other resources have a hard time getting from the Middle East to China?
Pirates will get more brazen. As soon as a ship is taken in the Indian Ocean, will insurers cover ships anywhere?
China will have to guarantee shipping from the Middle East and Europe to China. What will that look like?
I was just reading that insurers have raised the prices for shipping companies operating in the Red Sea due to the insurance companies declaring it a war risk zone.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/war-risk-insurance-rates-edge-up-after-surge-red-sea-ship-attacks-2023-12-04/
Who would have thought there would be a downside to globalization. If only we hadn’t gutted our industrial base. Who doesn’t cover their ass protecting immediate access to critical supplies?
Irrational certainty comes to mind? Our cocooned betters don’t have the knowledge or the imagination to anticipate obstacles, let alone, God forbid, have a backup plan.
Well, I’m glad I managed to go through the Red Sea/Suez three times in my life. (Wanted to take my wife to Israel though….I got there once…but, at our ages that’s out now.)
Amazing though how a few ragheads with rockets can disrupt the world’s economy.
Or “accidental” grounding of one ship…
This is a choice the world is making. The countries that rely on maritime trade for their existence could easily keep the red sea open. It’s not like it’s being patrolled by wolfpacks of U Boats. Even the Canadian navy by itself could do this, yet the American, Brits, French, Italians, etc are letting it happen.
Well it seems the US Navy is short on tankers just like back at the beginning of the war in the Pacific, the difference then ” Get er done” wasn’t culturally forbidden and actually meant something.
There is a fifth column in every western nation and they seem to be in charge.
Maybe I’ll pen a letter…
” Could have had a pipeline ” . Well,the trans mountain (never to be completed?) Has only been delayed for 2 years. And with the 30 billion ++++ price tag,well they nearly stole the existing one 4.5 billion one they bought. I hope we don’t get stuck with reparations. So how much more to complete the greatest money laundering project in Canadian history.? Pick only 2 and add them. 2,3, 5,6,8,or 10 billion. So I am left wondering, when it is bequeathed to the first nations, will that 76 billion we owe?
Sorry, come off the 76 billion they say we owe first nations.
Shit’s about to get real.
That should keep the price of oil from collapsing through the floor because the world economy isn’t.
If it’s happening, it’s because the “Biden” admin is letting it happen. Didn’t they send 3 carriers to the Med to potentially help Israel? What are they doing now? Perhaps it’s their way of punishing some Gulf countries for playing footsie with China.
Egypt is not happy; they are losing money due to less traffic through the Suez canal.
In the greater grand scheme, this is ALL deliberate and planned.
If enough don’t awaken and soon, we are all royally screwed!
I saw Defence guy Austen on TV this morning. He’s putting together an international coalition, because this is an international problem. No action. And everybody knows it.
This administration enjoys making things worse.
This is the wider war that has been warned about. All the SDA commenters squawking “YOU ANTI-SEMITE”, or “RUSSIA BAD” for the last year had better start prepping your children and grand children for whats coming.
Never had this kind of problem when the British ruled Aden.
They are also looking at trucking it UAE-KSA-Jordan-Isreal. But who knows. BRICKS and who controls trade routes. Just sayin.
Sooner or later it will all go on sale.. The people with money are in no rush to buy things they don’t need.. That is our economy in a nutshell..
As I wandered around the links in this article I learned an amazing thing: did you guys know that American (and probably British) ships can’t reload their vertical launch systems at sea? They must return to port to load more missiles in their VLS. So if they empty their magazines shooting down drones, they have to go someplace else and load up again.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/10/u-s-navy-demonstrates-vls-reload-in-san-diego-harbor/
They can’t reload ship to ship. Stupid!
Wow, yup no foresight. Drones were not thought of back in the design phase.
Why not just fly the drones onto the ships?