WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The global shipping industry is facing a 'genuinely unprecedented' convergence of maritime crises, with vessels and seafarers increasingly used as 'leverage' in conflicts, a top official at the UN's International Maritime Organization said.
Four regions - the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, the waters off Somalia, and the Black Sea - are now simultaneously active theaters of danger, on a scale the shipping industry has not seen before.
Vessels and seafarers are being trapped and attacked in conflicts that have nothing to do with the ships themselves.
Damien Chevalier, the Director of the Maritime Safety Division at the UN's International Maritime Organization told UN News about the scale of the threat and what's being done to protect ships and crews.
This is the first time so many vessels and seafarers have been threatened across multiple regions at once. The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is unprecedented in terms of the number of vessels (2000) and seafarers (20,000) that were impacted at the beginning of the conflict.
The industry now faces a combination of crises: not just Hormuz, but Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and a sharp rise in piracy near Somalia, where seafarers are held hostage.
There has also been a significant increase in attacks in the Black Sea, where parties to the conflict are using drones to target oil tankers and grain-carrying vessels.
Naval assets are more focused on the threats in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz, and so pirates have taken the opportunity to operate, particularly against smaller, easier-to-attack bulk carriers.
A recent meeting on maritime law enforcement focused heavily on counter-piracy, given the surge in incidents and the deteriorating security situation in Somalia.
Shipping has become a deliberate instrument of geopolitical leverage, with its consequences severe and far-reaching, says Chevalier.
The Strait of Hormuz alone carries roughly 20 per cent of the world's oil, so disruption there affects inflation and living costs globally.
Both the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea are also critical for fertilizer and the latter for grain exports, meaning food security is at stake. The impact is likely to be felt into next year, particularly in developing countries.
While wealthier nations can draw on strategic reserves, this is only a short-term buffer; once reserves are depleted, a second wave of crisis follows. Rising shipping costs, from rerouting to added security measures, compound the problem, driving up prices on top of reduced supply.
Perhaps the deepest concern is the future of the seafaring workforce itself as without seafarers there is no shipping industry.
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