The Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have caused widespread diversions in global oil trades. Wall Street continues to ignore the geopolitics involved - but in the real world, longstanding warnings from the oil tanker industry that there are too few ships being built are coming home to roost.
While other commercial vessels began avoiding the Red Sea soon after the Houthi attacks started in November, oil and fuel tankers kept sailing undeterred. However, after U.S. and British forces bombed Yemen in January in an attempt to discourage the attacks, many of the world's top tanker owners began steering clear of the military action in the Red Sea.
