“We are touching the backbone of globalization,” explains a specialist in maritime issues

As the Houthis increase attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Vincent Groizeleau

“We are touching the backbone of globalization”, explains maritime issues specialist Vincent Groizeleau, editor-in-chief of the Mer et Marine site, after the attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen on Monday December 18. They claim to have carried out attacks on two Norwegian ships “linked to Israel”. The oil group BP suspends all transit via the Red Sea. Several transport giants have also announced that they will interrupt transit via this passage: such as the French shipowner CMA-CGM or the Taiwanese Evergreen.

Franceinfo: Is the Red Sea an important passage in global maritime transport?

Vincent Groizeleau: Important and completely strategic! What we must understand is that here we are touching on the backbone of globalization. Approximately 90% of goods in the world pass by sea. And the Red Sea is one of the major routes, particularly for connections between Asia and Europe. To give you an idea: 26 million containers pass between Asia and Europe each year. And in these goods, we will find what we find in your supermarket, DIY, household appliances, Christmas toys, components that European industry needs, etc. And so, these boats go faster and if they pass through the Indian Ocean and then go directly back to the Mediterranean to then reach Northern Europe through the Suez Canal and therefore through the Red Sea. And today, in fact, this route is completely disrupted, so shipowners have no other choice but to divert to a longer route around Africa. And that will inevitably have an impact, because it’s thousands of additional kilometers. We can reach delays of almost two additional weeks, so this will have an impact on supply chains, particularly on containers. And there, since today, we have tankers.

We therefore understand the strategic point of the place. Is it impossible to protect him?

No, we must protect him. But for that, you need resources. The Americans are, with other Westerners, working to set up a protection system in the Red Sea. There will certainly be announcements on this subject shortly. But for that, you need boats. The Americans have them, but not for everything. There is a French navy boat, but the French navy has a handful of frigates to do all its missions. Today, it is not able to send half a dozen to the Red Sea to protect maritime traffic, because there are not enough. So we will have to rely on the Americans, the British, the French, the neighboring countries as well, who have every interest in protecting this maritime traffic, I am thinking of Egypt in particular. We will have to put a lot of boats in to protect all these ships. To give you an example, for Saturday alone [16 décembre], a single American destroyer intercepted fourteen drones and missiles. It is enormous ! This increase in the number of attacks requires considerable resources.

Technically, is it complicated to change the route of a whole bunch of ships?

For ships, this is not a problem. This is the advantage of the ship, it can go wherever it wants and enjoy the seas, the freedom to navigate. The difficulty is logistics. These are the ports that will have to reconfigure themselves to receive the goods. And then, all the post-transportation, that is to say the trucks, the trains, the boats and the river planes which evacuate all these goods. And there, indeed, we certainly have a few slightly complicated weeks in terms of logistics ahead.

Has this already happened, this form of piracy, these terrorist acts, on certain ships?

We have already had attacks in 2016 in particular, the Houthis made headlines by attacking ships in the Red Sea. The Americans responded by firing cruise missiles at radar positions on the Yemeni coast, in areas that were held by the tools. For the moment, the Americans have not yet responded because the situation is very sensitive and the aim of the game is not to escalate, particularly because the Houthis have shown us at the end of November that they were capable of firing missiles and drones into the Indian Ocean, therefore hitting very, very far away. The idea is not to have the Indian Ocean ablaze with damaged boats everywhere. So everyone goes there with a lot of sensitivity. The last time there was a very big problem in the sector was the Iran-Iraq war, at the end of the 1980s, a good part of the French Navy had been deployed, in particular to protect oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz facing Iran, to allow them to pass safely and not be attacked.