News / China's Cosco suspends Israel-bound ocean services

Cosco has reportedly joined its subsidiary, OOCL, in suspending ocean shipments to Israel.

According to Israeli publication Le Globes yesterday, the Chinese state-owned carrier has informed customers it had temporarily halted the carriage of goods to Israel, but gave no reasons.

OOCL, on the other hand, said on 17 December: “Due to operational issues, OOCL will stop cargo acceptance to and from Israel with immediate effect, until further notice.”

The Loadstar’s attempts to reach Cosco for comment were unsuccessful.

Threat of attacks from Houthi rebels in the Red Sea have compelled many operators to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, but they will continue to access Israel by other routes.

The Houthi rebels have targeted ships owned by Israeli nationals and Israel-bound vessels.

No Cosco or OOCL ship has been attacked so far, and observers are wondering if Cosco’s move is due to friendly diplomatic relations with Iran, which supplies 90% of China’s oil imports.

Prior to the suspension of shipments to Israel, Cosco had a weekly service carrying containers to the Haifa terminal operated by Shanghai International Port Group subsidiary Bayport Terminal.

Cosco also cooperates with Israel’s Zim Line on some Asia-US east coast and Asia-Africa services, meaning that Zim could need to find another partner or deploy more ships.

It is not known if Cosco’s decision will affect its Israel-bound car-carrying service, which was launched in May to compete with Zim, as Israel imports more Chinese-made vehicles.

In any case, Linerlytica analyst Tan Hua Joo told The Loadstar Cosco’s move would have a negligible impact on its business, as the Israel service did not account for substantial cargo volume.

Mr Tan said: “Cosco could be doing this in preparation for resuming transits via the Suez Canal, as Cosco ships are now rerouted to the Cape of Good Hope while its alliance partner, CMA CGM, is still using the Suez route.”