Three ships were attacked in the Red Sea in one day, MSC announced suspension of services in Djibouti

Recently, Yemen's Houthi armed forces launched another armed attack, carrying out three attacks in one day, causing tensions in the Red Sea region to continue to rise.

According to the latest news reports, Yemen's Houthi armed forces said on July 12 that the organization used missiles and drones to attack the "Chrysalis" twice in the Red Sea and the Strait of Mande. It was an oil tanker flying the Libya flag. In addition, on July 9 local time, a spokesman for the Houthi armed forces in Yemen issued a statement saying that they attacked the ships "Maersk Sentosa" and "Marthopolis" on the Arabian Sea and the ship "MSC Patnaree" on the Gulf of Aden that day.

It is understood that the "Maersk Sentosa" is owned by Maersk, the world's largest container carrier company, while the "MSC Patnaree" is a ship owned by MSC, another shipping and logistics giant.

Maersk confirmed to the media that the captain of its "Maersk Sentosa" ship reported that during the voyage, an explosion occurred near the ship. However, the vessel was slightly damaged and is currently sailing. In addition, MSC said that many of its ships were attacked because they were considered by the Houthi armed forces to be "Israeli ships." At the time of the incident, the ship was sailing from the port of Berbera in Somalia to the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Due to the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea, there have been at least 15 missile attacks by Houthi on foreign ships. Many large ships have suffered minor and moderate damage, deaths of sailors, and the sinking of small ships.

This situation has seriously affected the port of Djibouti. Djibouti Port is the only port for exporting all Ethiopian goods, and the port is mainly dominated by MSC Company, which currently accounts for 80% of the port's transportation capacity. However, MSC recently announced that it will completely suspend Bujiti port services.

This time MSC's suspension of Djibouti port routes will have a serious impact on Ethiopia's goods exports, especially the country's coffee exports, which account for Ethiopia's exports. As a result, an international coffee trader reported that customers had ordered coffee shipments, but there was currently no specific delivery date. Even if the company could pay more expensive shipping costs, the delivery time could not be guaranteed.

According to statistics, the Yemeni Houthi armed forces launched the most attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden regions in June since 2024. This is the latest attack since early July, and the incident occurred outside the traditional threat area of the Houthi armed forces.

Earlier, Ethiopian coffee exports encountered many problems. The most important one was that due to the impact of the Red Sea crisis, shipping companies had to choose to detour to the Horn of Africa. The number of ships in the port of Djibouti decreased, resulting in the accumulation of coffee cargo in the port.

Judging from the current situation, the Houthi armed forces have expanded the scope of their strikes and escalated their threats, which may once again push up shipping prices and increase shipping times. Moreover, for coffee that relies on shipping trade, the increase in shipping prices also indirectly drives up coffee trading prices.