Yemeni Maritime Operations Impact UK Economy: British Companies Report Losses

The British economy continues to suffer losses due to Yemeni maritime operations targeting British ships in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and Gulf of Aden. These operations are a response to Britain’s involvement in the aggression against Yemen, aimed at protecting Zionist navigation.

A British railway company announced on Monday evening a decline in its sales due to the repercussions of the situation in the Red Sea. According to Reuters, Hornby, a British company that manufactures model railways, announced that its global sales suffered following a decline in the last quarter’s results due to delivery delays. This is a result of the situation in the Red Sea, indicating that ships are forced to reroute and circumnavigate Africa to reach Britain, which adds significant costs and delays the arrival of shipments.

The company stated that its sales in the fourth quarter fell by 8% on an annual basis. This comes in the context of escalating losses incurred by many major British companies due to Yemeni operations in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. British ships have been forced to reroute and take a longer route to avoid being targeted by Yemeni armed forces in response to Britain’s involvement in targeting Yemen to protect Zionist navigation.

At the end of last March, The Sun, a British newspaper, published a report confirming that rerouting British ships away from the Red Sea “makes consumers in the United Kingdom pay more costs for everything from cars to tea.” It pointed out that the British oil company BP (British Petroleum), a giant company, has become “forced to reroute its voyages amid threats of rising fuel prices, which threatens to ignite inflation again.”

The newspaper said, “Shipping companies are already suffering from an additional cost averaging 800,000 pounds sterling each time they are forced to change their route, in addition to two-week delays.”

The report mentioned that “Sainsbury’s, a British company, recently warned that tea supplies are at risk due to attacks in the Red Sea,” and quoted Bjorn Gulden, the CEO of Adidas, a giant sportswear company, as saying, “Exploding shipping prices lead to rising costs, amid fears of rising store prices.”

It added that major British companies such as Marks & Spencer, Durex, and other companies like Danone and IKEA, warned of the impact of delayed shipment delivery.

According to the report, the British fashion chain Next expected that sales growth would be low if the disturbances continued until 2024, while the major British retail chains Poundland and Primark warned that “supplies could be affected in the coming months if the Houthis are not stopped,” according to their expression.

At the end of last February, the British Chamber of Commerce published a report revealing that Yemeni operations had caused damage to 55% of exporters in Britain and 53% of manufacturers and retailers. It also led to a 300% increase in container shipping costs and significant delays in delivering goods to the United Kingdom.

The report of the British Chamber of Commerce mentioned that the effects of Yemeni operations also led to cash flow difficulties and a shortage of components in production lines within Britain.

William Bain, the head of trade policy at the British Chamber of Commerce, said, “The longer the current situation lasts, the more likely cost pressures will start to accumulate.”

With these repercussions, Britain, along with the United States, has proven a dismal failure in trying to stop or limit Yemeni attacks. The BBC quoted senior officers in the British Navy admitting the difficulty of confronting Yemen’s deadly and fast weapons, and the inability of British warships to intercept any Yemeni missile so far, which makes economic losses likely to escalate over time.