The Houthis cause trade from the Israeli port of Eilat to collapse by 85% and strike as far as the Indian Ocean
This week the CEO of the Israeli port of Eilat confirmed that Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping have had a devastating impact on cargo flows entering the country.
Chief Executive Gideon Golber told Reuters : “ The main navigation artery of the port of Eilat is closed. And therefore we lost 85% of the total activity." However, Eilat – which mainly handles car imports on one side and potash exports on the other – is much smaller than Israel's two largest Mediterranean ports, Haifa and Ashdod. In better times, cruise ships also regularly call here, as the region is full of tourist spots.
However, the Houthis' aim to damage Israel's economy and import/export capacity appears to be having an effect and could get worse. “We still have a small number of potash export vessels, but I believe that with a destination in the Far East they will no longer travel in that direction. So this will also decrease,” Golber added in his statement.
What is happening to traffic in Eilat could be a sign of things to come in Israel's larger ports on the Mediterranean side. Eilat's location is the most important and strategic, as it is located south of the Gulf of Aqaba and offers Israel a route to the East without having to navigate the Suez Canal.
According to an analysis by Al Jazeera, traffic in Eilat came to a standstill:
Israel, the Houthis' first direct target, has already suffered from the disruption of maritime trade. Traffic through the southern port of Eilat, located in a city that is also a tourist destination, has come to a standstill and the foreseeable future looks uncertain as the war rages on.
Egypt, which was already facing a struggling economy before the war, could be heavily affected by the slowdown in trade, as well as the decrease in transit fees for goods passing through the Suez Canal, on which it is heavily dependent.
Europe and the Mediterranean states are set to suffer the greatest losses if the current situation persists in the long term, as many of the ships carrying goods to and from these countries have been affected.
Meanwhile, the area of drone strikes has widened : A chemical tanker operating in the Indian Ocean was hit by an Iranian attack drone on Saturday, a U.S. Department of Defense official said, the seventh Iranian attack on commercial ships since 2021.
“ The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned and Dutch-operated chemical tanker, was struck around 10.00 local time (6.00 GMT) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran” ,
A one-way attack drone is designed to hit its target rather than return to the origin. “There were no casualties and the fire on board the tanker was extinguished,” the defense official said.
“No U.S. Navy ships were nearby,” the statement said, adding that Naval Forces Central Command was communicating with the stricken vessel.
The ship departed Saudi Arabia on December 19 and was due to arrive in India's southwestern port city of Mangalore on December 25.
This event signals a greater commitment to attacking merchant ships in an area hitherto considered safe. Furthermore, it is to be expected that some other naval forces, especially the Indian ones, will at this point be involved in the control and security of ocean trade, even if this activity will entail a very high cost, which someone, i.e. the traders, will have to pay.
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The article The Houthis cause trade from the Israeli port of Eilat to collapse by 85% and strike as far as the Indian Ocean comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-houthi-fanno-crollare-il-commercio-dal-porto-di-israeliano-di-eilat-dell85-e-colpiscono-sino-alloceano-indiano/ on Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:00:36 +0000.