Maersk temporarily halts sailing through Red Sea after attack on its Singapore-flagged ship

A SINGAPORE-FLAGGED Maersk container ship was attacked near Yemen on Sunday (Dec 31) at 1.30 am (Singapore time), prompting the Danish carrier to halt transit through the Suez Canal till Tuesday, the world’s second-largest shipping line said.

“In light of the incident – and to allow time to investigate the details of the incident and assess the security situation further – it has been decided to delay all transits through the area for the next 48 hours,” Maersk said in its response to The Business Times queries on Sunday on whether the attack on the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou would cause it to change course over its earlier decision to sail through the Red Sea.

The vessel had passed through the Bab al-Mandab Strait en route from Singapore to Port Suez, Egypt and was at 55 nautical miles south-west of Al Hudaydah, Yemen when it was hit by an unknown object.