Tesla he decided to stop production at its plant in Germany for two weeks, due to delays in component deliveries due to Houthi attacks on cargo ships transiting the Red Sea. Elon Musk’s electric car company will suspend the assembly line from January 29 to February 11, 2024 in a block that could result in roughly seven thousand vehicles not being built.
“Armed conflicts in the Red Sea and related shifts in shipping routes between Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope also affect Grunheide production”near Berlin, e.g “Significantly longer transit times create a gap in supply chains’, Tesla said this in a statement Reuters.
Since the Houthis began attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea in November 2023, crossing the most important shipping route connecting Asia to the Mediterranean has become increasingly dangerous. Many companies have begun to use an alternative route that bypasses the southern tip of the African continent, in trip longer than two weeks which began to affect world trade, causing it to fall by 1.3% in December.
According to a recent report by Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, cargo ships crossing the Red Sea headed for the Suez Canal, accounting for about 12% of global maritime traffic. dropped by 60%from 500 thousand in November 2023 to only 200 thousand in December 2023.
That number is set to increase in recent days following the decision by Maersk, a shipping company responsible for 20% of global trade, to divert its ships towards the Cape of Good Hope following two attacks in December. According to analysts interruption of the route to Suez could take months, risk rising inflation and creating shortages of commercial products, especially clothing and alcohol.