Chinese automakers are shipping cars to Europe through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, nearly two years after the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen started attacking vessels in the critical Middle East transit route.

中国车企正在通过红海和苏伊士运河将汽车运往欧洲，而在近两年前，伊朗支持的也门胡塞武装组织开始袭击使用这条中东重要运输航线的船只。

Other automakers are still shipping cars from Asia by way of a much longer, and expensive, trip around Africa.

为了将汽车从亚洲运往欧洲，其他国家的汽车制造商仍在使用绕道非洲的更长、费用更高的航线。

Last month, at least 14 car-carrier ships traveled from Chinese ports to Europe through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, according to a new analysis by Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a British maritime information service. About the same number made the voyage in June.

据英国海事信息服务机构劳氏日报情报公司的最新分析，上个月，至少有14艘汽车运输船从中国港口经红海和苏伊士运河驶往欧洲。6月的航运量也基本持平。

The trips have continued even after the Houthis used drones, grenades and gunfire to sink two other cargo ships early last month. The militia group says the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians living through Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

虽然胡塞武装曾在上个月初用无人机、手榴弹和炮火击沉了另外两艘货船，但中国船只仍在继续使用这条航线。胡塞武装称，袭击行动是为了声援在以色列对哈马斯发起的加沙战争下生活在水深火热中的巴勒斯坦人。

Most shipping analysts assume that the Chinese government has reached an understanding with Iran or the Houthis not to harm car-carrier ships from China. It seems that “China has found a way to deal with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, and they have been told that their ships will not be targeted,” said Daniel Nash, associate director of valuation and analytics at Veson Nautical, another maritime data firm.

大多数航运分析人士认为，中国政府已与伊朗或胡塞武装达成了默契，确保中国汽车运输船免受攻击。看来“中国已找到了与受伊朗支持的胡塞叛军打交道的办法，而且已被告知，他们的船只不会成为袭击目标”，另一家海事数据公司Veson Nautical的估值与分析副总监丹尼尔·纳什说。

Traveling through the Red Sea and Suez Canal saves 14 to 18 days on each round trip between Asia and Europe, compared with going around Africa. This reduces costs for fuel, crews and the ships themselves by a couple hundred dollars per car.

与绕道非洲相比，通过红海和苏伊士运河往返亚欧的航程可节省14至18天。这就减少了花在燃料、船员，以及船只本身的钱，从而让每辆汽车的运输成本降低数百美元。

Going around Africa “adds considerable costs to a shipowner’s fuel bill, increases pollution from the vessel and ultimately adds costs for buyers of new cars,” said Rob Willmington, a senior analyst at Lloyd’s List who led the review of voyages by car-carrier ships.

绕道非洲“给船东增加了相当大的燃料费用，增加了来自轮船的污染，并最终提高了新车买家的成本”，劳氏日报的高级分析师罗布·威尔明顿说，他领导了评估汽车运输船航行的工作。

The savings help Chinese automakers compete in Europe with Japanese, Korean and European automakers, which rely on European and Japanese shipping lines that are not using Red Sea routes.

这些节省下来的成本帮助中国汽车制造商在欧洲市场与来自日韩以及欧洲本土的车企竞争，这些车企依靠不使用红海航线的欧洲和日本航运公司将汽车从亚洲运往欧洲。

Chinese automakers face other costs — thousands of dollars for each car — from tariffs the European Union imposed on electric vehicles from China last year.

中国汽车制造商面临着其他成本——欧盟去年把对中国产电动汽车征收的关税提高到每辆高达数以千计美元。

BYD and other Chinese automakers have partly bypassed those tariffs by sending hybrid cars that mainly use battery-powered electric motors with small gasoline engines as backups.

通过向欧洲出售以电池驱动为主、小型汽油发动机为辅的混合动力汽车，比亚迪和其他中国车企已部分规避了这些关税。

Most other commercial vessels, including big container ships belonging to the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company, known as Cosco, have been avoiding the Red Sea and Suez Canal ever since the Houthi militia began sinking or hijacking ships near Yemen in November 2023. Shipowners in Europe and Asia mostly refuse to allow companies to charter their vessels for such trips. Commercial insurers in London have become wary of insuring such voyages, charging higher rates when they do.

自胡塞武装从2023年11月开始在也门附近击沉或劫持船只以来，大多数其他商用轮船——包括隶属于国有的中国远洋运输公司（简称“中远集团”）的大型集装箱船一直避免走红海和苏伊士运河的航线。欧洲和亚洲的船东们普遍拒绝租用它们船只的公司使用这条航线。伦敦的商业保险公司已对承保走这条航线的船只变得谨慎，对采取这一做法的船只收取更高的保费。

Chinese automakers, notably BYD and SAIC Motor, have taken delivery in recent months from Chinese shipyards of some of the world’s largest ships designed specially to carry cars. The automakers are sending these newly built vessels through the Red Sea anyway. Built in shipyards on or near the Yangtze River, these ships have a dozen decks and can carry as many as 5,000 cars, worth a total of $100 million or more, on each voyage.

中国车企，尤其是比亚迪和上汽集团，已在近几个月里从中国的造船厂接收了一些世界上最大的专门为运载汽车设计的货轮。而且，这些车企正在让这些新建造的船只通过红海航线进行运输。这些在长江沿岸或附近的造船厂建造的轮船有十几层甲板，一次可运载多达5000辆汽车，总价值高达一亿美元或以上。

The state-owned SAIC Motor, previously known as the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, and BYD did not respond to requests for comment. In addition to Chinese-owned ships, several car-carrier ships owned by a South Korean company or by a joint venture of businesses in Abu Dhabi and Turkey also sailed through the Red Sea and Suez Canal in June and July after stopping at car-loading ports in China, Mr. Willmington said.

国有企业上海汽车集团股份有限公司（简称“上汽集团”）和比亚迪均未回应置评请求。威尔明顿说，除了中国拥有的货船外，几艘由韩国公司或阿布扎比和土耳其的合资企业拥有的汽车运输船也曾在今年6月和7月在中国的汽车装运港停靠后走了红海和苏伊士运河航线。

China, Iran and the Houthis have not announced any deal on car-carrier ships. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no immediate response to a request on Friday for comment, and the ministry is in its annual August suspension of daily news briefings.

中国、伊朗，以及胡塞武装尚未宣布任何有关汽车运输船的协议。中国外交部上周五没有马上回复置评请求，外交部的例行记者会按惯例在8月份休会。

China buys almost all of Iran’s crude oil exports, which represent 6 percent of Iran’s entire economy and are equal to half of the Iranian government’s annual budget. Chinese officials contend that boycotts of Iran’s oil exports were organized by the West but never approved by the United Nations, and so are not binding on Chinese oil companies.

中国几乎包揽伊朗全部的原油出口，这占到伊朗经济总量的6%，相当于伊朗政府年度预算的一半。中国官员认为，抵制伊朗石油出口是西方国家组织的，从未得到联合国的批准，所以对中国的石油公司不具有约束力。

The Houthis announced on July 28 that they would continue their campaign of attacks on ships that they believe have any connection to Israel or Israeli ports. The campaign began soon after Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

胡塞武装曾在今年7月28日宣布，他们会继续打击他们认为与以色列或以色列港口存在任何联系的船只。胡塞武装的行动是在来自加沙地带的哈马斯武装分子于2023年10月7日袭击了以色列南部后不久开始的。

One of the first Houthi targets, and the best-known incident, involved the hijacking in November 2023 of the Galaxy Leader, a car-carrier ship that was traveling back empty from Europe to Asia. The ship’s 25-member crew was held hostage for 14 months in Yemen and finally released in January, but the Houthis kept the ship at a Yemeni port.

首批袭击中最有名的事件，是2023年11月被劫持的Galaxy Leader号汽车运输船，该船当时正从欧洲空驶回亚洲。船上的25名船员被当作人质在也门遭扣留长达14个月，虽然他们终于在今年1月被释放，但胡塞武装仍将船只扣留在了也门的一个港口。

The Israeli air force then bombed the vessel a month ago after reports that the Houthis were using a sophisticated radar system on the ship to track potential targets in the Red Sea for further attacks.

后来，以色列空军在一个月前轰炸了该船，因为此前有报道称，胡塞武装正在使用船上先进的雷达系统，为下一次打击行动追踪红海中的潜在目标。