“Escalation in several key ways endangers the rules-based order at sea”

On the Strait of Hormuz, merchant ships are blocked, shot at and threatened by sea mines. The Yemeni Houthi army, allied with Iran, is shelling civilian ships in the Red Sea. In the Black Sea, Russia repeatedly attacks freighters in its war against Ukraine.

"We have reached a point where the simultaneous escalation on several central sea routes endangers the rules-based order at sea as a whole. Attacks on civilian ships and the blocking of free passage must not become the norm," said Martin Kröger, General Manager of the Association of German Shipowners (VDR) in Hamburg on Thursday. “The international community must counteract this development together – with diplomacy, international cooperation and effective protection for merchant ships and their crews.”

The crews of the merchant ships are exposed to direct fire from warring parties - in the Persian Gulf especially from the weapons of the Iranian army and the Revolutionary Guard. The Houthis, in turn, boarded a car transporter in the Red Sea at the end of 2023 and kidnapped the 25 crew members to Yemen. After the US and Israel's war against Iran began, up to 20,000 sailors were stranded on hundreds of merchant ships in the Persian Gulf, sometimes for months. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recorded 113 confirmed attacks on civilian ships and 24 sailors killed in the region since the start of the war.

International shipping is also registering ongoing military tensions between China and Taiwan. China claims the island state as part of its own territory and repeatedly provokes Taiwan militarily. In the Baltic Sea, on the other hand, “interference and manipulation of satellite navigation signals such as GPS make safe navigation more difficult,” according to the VDR. The reason for this is presumably Russia's hybrid warfare against Europe and NATO.

The shipping association quantifies some key consequences for the supply of world markets: "Russia and Ukraine account for around 27 percent of global wheat exports. In the middle of the important shipping period after the harvest, around 78 percent less wheat was shipped via the Black Sea route in September than a year before: only 1.6 instead of 7.3 million tons," says Thursday's statement.

The war against Iran, in turn, is making it massively more difficult to supply the international community with oil and natural gas. The most important reserves of these fossil fuels are located around the Persian Gulf. “Around 20 million barrels of oil and oil products were transported through the Strait of Hormuz every day in 2025. At the beginning of October, crude oil transports were around 26 percent below pre-war levels,” writes the VDR. "Liquefied natural gas transport also remains severely restricted. Before the war, almost 20 percent of global LNG trade passed through this strait."

VDR Managing Director Kröger says: "The consequences affect our economy, which is dependent on imports of raw materials, as well as us consumers when it comes to heating, in the supermarket or at the gas station. Safe sea routes are the basis of our prosperity and affordable supplies." The VDR represents the interests of around 300 German shipping companies with a total of 1,716 merchant ships. The German merchant fleet is the seventh largest in the world. In container shipping, the fleet controlled by German shipping companies ranks second internationally with a market share of 7.6 percent.

The VDR appeals to Germany, the European Union and their partner states to "intensify diplomatic efforts to end the attacks, secure free passage and coordinate protective measures. This also includes adequately equipped navies and protection missions such as the European operation 'Aspides'."

The shipowners' association welcomes the international initiative to protect free shipping presented on October 12th, "which is supported by all EU member states and 34 other countries. It is aimed in particular against unlawful fees, passage restrictions and other interference with the freedom of navigation," said the statement on Thursday. "The current EU summit is also dealing with the security of sea routes. It is crucial that the joint political declarations are followed by concrete measures to protect merchant ships and their crews."