Lower thirds:

00:05 Report by / Kerstin Schweizer
00:18 Silke Lehmköster, Managing Director Fleet, Hapag-Lloyd
01:19 Silke Lehmköster, Managing Director Fleet, Hapag-Lloyd
01:58 Silke Lehmköster, Managing Director Fleet, Hapag-Lloyd

Script:

Among the hundreds of ships waiting at anchor around the Strait of Hormuz are those operated by German carrier Hapag Lloyd. For days now, crewmembers and their bosses at company headquarters in Hamburg have been waiting to find out what comes next.
 
+++SOT Silke Lehmköster, Managing Director Fleet at Hapag Lloyd+++
"They hear and see drones and other items flying around them. Luckily, not hitting our vessels or any vessels nearby. The other part, what they experience is that the GPS and also the AIS, the automatic identification system, is heavily interfered. It is difficult to determine where the position of the vessel currently is with those means."

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important sea transport routes in the world. Tankers travel in one direction heavy with oil and liquified natural gas exports from Gulf countries. Container ships -- like those from Hapag-Lloyd -- sail in the other, laden with consumer goods, foodstuff or industrial products for the same region.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar -- all dependent upon imports. The United Arab Ermiates imports a whopping 90 percent of its food products. Moving goods over other transport routes is dififcult. 

+++SOT Silke Lehmköster, Managing Director Fleet at Hapag Lloyd+++
"The strait of Hormus is the only way by vessels to go inside the Persian Golf. So we are checking possibilities via the shore site. Another possibility is to check which ports that are close by. So that, again, we can do something by land transportation, let it be trucks or trains."

But those options are hard and expensive. Fossil fuel prices have meanwhile risen around the world with oil and natural gas exports unable to leave the region. Prices of goods have also risen in the Gulf states.

+++SOT Silke Lehmköster, Managing Director Fleet at Hapag Lloyd+++
"We have higher storage costs, because we bring cargo not to the actual port of destination, and ports are also getting filled up. Vessels might take different routes, means longer routes also. That is a higher bunker consumption, and of course, if we think about calling any ports, around the Arabian, island, half island, that also means that we have higher insurance premiums."

US President Donald Trump has suggested the US could provide military escort to ships crossing the strait. The manager at Hapag-Lloyd doesn't expect much of that idea: Too many ships cross the strait daily. Securing passage for all of them would be a massive undertaking. 

END