Houthi rebel attacks have forced many major shipping companies to announce plans to divert away from the Red Sea.
Supply chain intelligence company Project 44 has captured data showing the impact of the Houthi threat on cargo traffic looking to pass through the Red Sea.
Project 44 report contains a map showing the location of cargo ships impacted by the security situation.
Each dark blue dot on the map represents a vessel that is currently drifting, and each lighter dot represents a vessel that has decided to reroute.
The vast majority of stranded ships have begun rerouting procedures, typically choosing routes around the Cape of Good Hope – a massive 3,700mile detour.
A large number of previously stranded ships have now chosen to reroute through the Cape of Good Hope, according to Project 44.
The number of drifting vessels has dropped from 26 last week to 10 this week, indicating that carriers are no longer delaying decisions and are actively choosing to avoid the Red Sea.
Before detonating on Thursday, an unmanned surface vessel (USV) launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen approached within a “couple of miles” of US Navy and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
This incident occurred shortly after the White House and its allies issued a final warning to the Iran-backed Houthi group to stop carrying out such attacks or face military action.
Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Navy operations in the Middle East, noted that this was the Houthis’ first use of a USV in their harassment of ships in the Red Sea since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Houthis have previously used USVs, particularly as suicide drone boats that explode on impact, which were primarily assembled in Yemen but frequently included components from Iran.
US Navy warships have reportedly intercepted ballistic missiles aimed at Israel. During these incidents, US warships reportedly shot down 61 missiles and drones.
