Drone-sinking of coal ship takes Red Sea perils to new level
Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint to a new level and is driving a fresh surge in insurance costs.
The British navy said Tuesday that the only visible objects in the last known location of the Tutor dry-bulk carrier — at which point it was semi submerged — were some debris and an oil slick. Yemen’s Houthi militants managed to strike it with a seaborne drone, killing one crew member and injuring others. They said they eventually sank it with explosives.
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The price of covering vessels for transit — measured as a percentage of the ship’s value — surged to about 0.6% from between 0.3% and 0.4% according to two people involved in the market. It means that a vessel worth $50 million would have to pay $300,000 for one passage. The rate is nevertheless slightly below a peak reached earlier this year when attacks ramped up.
The sinking is a stark reminder of a growing threat the militants pose to vessels in the region. US and UK bombing of the Houthis, which began in January, failed to quell the attacks and instead led to vessels associated with the two nations becoming targets for the group, alongside freighters with connections to Israel. The Houthis, supporting Gazans, have warned of an expanded operation to potentially attack as far as the Mediterranean.
“It’s another indicator that the Houthis are stepping up their attacks on those vessels that were warned not to pass through the Red Sea,” Dirk Siebels, a senior analyst at Risk Intelligence, said of the sea-drone strike.
Not all ships
