Twice targeted by Houthis, Star Bulk won’t be going through Suez

Star Bulk CEO Petros Pappas: “We are obviously a target of the Houthis ...” [Screengrab from YouTube video]

Athens-headquartered, NASDAQ-listed Star Bulk Carriers Corp. has had two of its ships targeted by Houthi attacks, even though one of them, the Star Iris was carrying a cargo of corn from Brazil to for Bandar Iman Khomeini, Iran.

According to CENTCOM’s account of that attack, on February 12, at 3:30 to 3:45 a.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired two missiles from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Bab al-Mandeb. Both missiles were launched toward MV Star Iris, a Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel transiting the Red Sea carrying corn from Brazil. The ship reports being seaworthy with minor damage and no injuries to the crew. Of note, the MV Star Iris’s destination is Bandar Iman Khomeini, Iran.

On Monday, Star Bulk released its latest earnings report and yesterday, the day after the Star Iris attack, in a conference call with analysts, the question of the Red Sea situation was raised by Deutsche Bank’s Amit Mehrotra with Deutsche Bank.

Here’s what Star Bulk CEO Petros Pappas said in response

“Hi, Amit. Okay. First of all, let me explain the situation about our company. We had two cases of various charters where we asked our charters not to go through then Suez Canal but legally, we could not do that because until that time we did not know about the attacks to the Eagle Bulk and Genco vessels. And therefore, we got advised that we had to follow the charter party and send the vessels through Suez; so the first vessel passed and it was attacked three times. Fortunately, it was not hurt; nobody on board nor the vessel. But while that was happening, the second vessel was already passing Suez, so we couldn’t divert it. And that has continued and it was attacked again. Going forward, we will not be passing Suez Canal anymore because we are obviously a target of the Houthis having — being a public company registered in the U.S. So that’s — that was — I wanted to clarify this so that people know.

• You can read the rest of Petros Pappas’s response, and his insights into supply trade disruptions, in the Seeking Alpha transcript of the call HERE