Zodiac Maritime Ltd is an international ship management company that owns and charters out large vessels. [1] It is part of Ofer Global based in Monaco and chaired by Eyal Ofer. [2] It has a long-standing business relationship with Mediterranean Shipping Company.
On 2 January 2010, the MV Asian Glory was hijacked by pirates 1,000 km off the Horn of Africa. In late 2009 and early 2010, two of its ships (St James Park and MV Asian Glory ) were captured by Somali pirates. [3] [4]
In 2012, ZM owned the MSC Napoli, the container ship that ran into difficulty in the English Channel. [5] [6]
According to a 2014 analysis conducted by Globes, the companies of the Zodiac group generated together an operating profit of just over $1.5 billion in 2003–12, with an operating profit margin of 39%, and a 0.49% tax rate on profits. [7]
In July 2014, Eyal Ofer, the principal of Zodiac Group, received an honorary life membership of the Baltic Exchange for his contribution to shipping in the UK and global maritime trade. [8] Later that year, he was named in the top 10 most influential people in the shipping industry according to Lloyds List 2014. [9]
Iran has persistently attacked various vessels and seized ships amidst political issues since 2019. [10] [11]
On 29 July 2021, the oil tanker MT Mercer Street , managed by Zodiac, while travelling from Tanzania to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with no cargo on board, was attacked off the coast of Oman. [12] The US military announced that the drone had been produced in Iran. [13] [14]
In November 2023, amid the Israel–Hamas war, the Central Park, a tanker ship owned by Zodiac Maritime, was attacked in the Gulf of Aden by suspected Somali pirates. [15] [16]
On 13 April 2024, the IRGC Navy seized Portuguese-flagged container ship MSC Aries [17] in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, then steered the container ship through the Strait of Hormuz. [10] claiming that it had violated maritime laws. [18] MSC Aries is leased by MSC from Gortal Shipping Inc., which is an affiliate of Zodiac. [18]
The Strait of Hormuz is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategically important choke points. On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast lies the Musandam peninsula, shared by the United Arab Emirates and the Musandam Governorate, an exclave of Oman. The strait is about 90 nautical miles (167 km) long, with a width varying from about 52 nmi (96 km) to 21 nmi (39 km).
Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A, branded as MSC, is an international shipping line founded by Gianluigi Aponte in Italy in 1970. The company is owned by the Aponte family with its headquarters in Switzerland since 1978. It is the world's largest container shipping company by both fleet size and cargo capacity, controlling about 19.7 percent of the global container ship fleet.
CMA CGM is a French shipping and logistics company founded in 1978 by Jacques Saadé.
MISC Berhad was incorporated in 1968 as Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad and is the leading international shipping line of Malaysia. In September 2005, Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad adopted its present corporate identity and changed its name to MISC Berhad. Its main shareholder is Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), the national oil conglomerate of Malaysia. The principal business of the corporation consist of ship owning, ship operating, other shipping related activities, owning and operating of offshore floating facilities as well as marine repair, marine conversion and engineering and construction works. With a fleet of more than 120 vessels and a combined tonnage of more than 13,000,000 DWT.
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea affects a number of countries in West Africa as well as the wider international community. By 2011, it had become an issue of global concern. Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are often part of heavily armed criminal enterprises, who employ violent methods to steal oil cargo. In 2012, the International Maritime Bureau, Oceans Beyond Piracy and the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Program reported that the number of vessels attacks by West African pirates had reached a world high, with 966 seafarers attacked during the year. According to the Control Risks Group, pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea had by mid-November 2013 maintained a steady level of around 100 attempted hijackings in the year, a close second behind the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia. Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea continues to be a concern to the shipping industry, which is affected significantly. At the same time, governments in the region generally highlight that the fight against piracy requires a broad understanding of maritime security throughout the Gulf of Guinea.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Somali Sea, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long and troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. It was initially a threat to international fishing vessels during the early 2000s, only to rapidly escalate and expand to international shipping during the War in Somalia (2006–2009).
Operation Dawn 8: Gulf of Aden was a naval operation carried out by the Royal Malaysian Navy against pirates in the Indian Ocean on 20 January 2011. In response to the hijacking of MV Bunga Laurel, the Malaysian Shipborne Protection Team deployed an attack helicopter and 14 members of the naval counter-terrorism group PASKAL in two rigid-hulled inflatable boats to retake the vessel and rescue the crew. After one night of trailing the tanker, the Malaysian forces successfully retook the ship by force on 20 January 2011, resulting in the wounding of three and the capture of four out of 18 pirates, and all 23 vessel crewmembers rescued.
The Special Unit of NEDSA, also known as Sepah Navy Special Force(S.N.S.F.), is a Takavar unit in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy stationed in the Greater Farur Island of Persian Gulf.
The Orion class is a series of 8 container ships built for Zodiac Maritime. The first 4 ships are operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and the remaining ships are operated by Ocean Network Express (ONE). The ships were built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The ships have a maximum theoretical capacity of 14,952 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).
On 29 July 2021, the oil tanker MT Mercer Street, travelling from Tanzania to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with no cargo on board, was attacked off the coast of Oman. The ship is flagged in Liberia. It is Japanese-owned and managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime, an international ship management company headquartered in London and led by billionaire shipping magnate Eyal Ofer, who is an Israeli citizen.
On 3 August 2021 the asphalt tanker Asphalt Princess, travelling from Khor Fakkan, the United Arab Emirates, to the Sohar, Oman, was attacked and boarded in the Gulf of Oman. The ship is flagged in Panama. The vessel is owned by Glory International, listed as based in the Emirati free zone.
The Red Sea crisis began on 19 October 2023, when the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen launched missiles and armed drones at Israel, demanding an end to the invasion of the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have since seized and launched aerial attacks against merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea, drawing attacks on missile sites and other targets by US and allied forces. The crisis is linked to the Israel–Hamas war, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, the Iran–United States proxy conflict, and the Yemeni crisis.
Events in the year 2024 in Iran.
On 23 December 2023, the tanker Chem Pluto was struck by a anti-ship missile or drone while it was carrying oil from Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to New Mangalore Port, India. The strike happened at 10:00 local time when the ship was about 200 miles (320 km) south-west of Veraval.
These are timelines of the Red Sea crisis, which began on 19 October 2023.
On 13 April 2024, Iran seized MSC Aries, a Portuguese-registered and Madeira-flagged container ship owned by Gortal Shipping and leased to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). The ship, with a crew of 25 people, was boarded by Iranian commandos in the Strait of Hormuz, within international waters off the coast of the UAE, and taken to Iranian waters, effectively imprisoning the crew.