The largest maritime container carrier, Maersk, does not intend to resume ship transit in the Red Sea anytime soon. Charles van der Steene, Regional President for Maersk North America, told CNBC that the preferred option for the company would be to further refrain from the routes across the Red Sea during the second and third quarters of 2024.
CNBC notes that the company is currently navigating logistics routes around the Cape of Good Hope (southern Africa).
On February 8, Maersk published its report on financial results for 2023. It states that “the Red Sea crisis has caused immediate capacity constraints and a temporary increase in rates”.
The delivery time of goods shipped from Asia to Europe has increased by 10–15 days due to attacks in the Red Sea, and the cost of shipping has increased by 400%. This was reported by the Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni at a press conference in Brussels.