Bloomberg says Houthis are building missiles and drones in Yemen with Chinese-sourced parts

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ADEN, Yemen — The Houthis are assembling more of their missile and drone arsenal inside Yemen using machinery and components bought from China, Bloomberg reported.

The news organisation published the findings on 23 September after analysing intercepted cargo, customs documents and United Nations reports, and interviewing Yemeni officials and weapons experts.

The shift would reduce the group’s reliance on importing finished weapons.

Much of the documentary evidence came from four shipping containers seized at the southern port of Aden.

Weapons experts examining the cargo found suspected missile parts, drone components, computer-controlled machine tools, engines and tunnelling equipment, according to the investigation.

A detailed inspection in July turned up phenolic resin, a heat-resistant material that can be used in missile production.

Inspectors also found tail fins and other parts resembling ballistic missile components, Bloomberg said.

The containers were inspected at the request of the United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen.

That panel reports to the Security Council committee that administers sanctions on Yemen and publishes findings on arms transfers each year.

Bloomberg tracked dozens of containers shipped under 41 bills of lading, many of them from exporters based in Guangzhou.

In 25 cases the Yemeni importer named on the shipping documents was changed while the cargo was still in transit.

Yemeni trading networks that stayed active in China through the war years acquired engines, electronics, machinery and materials that can be used to build missiles and drones, according to the investigation.

The account does not rest on Bloomberg alone.

At a Security Council meeting on 14 July, the United States said that more than 70 percent of the prohibited or restricted dual-use items seized between January 2025 and April 2026 had originated in China.

Washington cited a United Nations body that monitors commercial shipments into Yemen.

Yemen Herald found no published response from the Chinese government or from the Houthi authorities to the Bloomberg findings.

The Security Council imposed a targeted arms embargo on Houthi leaders in resolution 2216 in April 2015.

The measure bars the supply of weapons to those individuals and to anyone acting on their behalf.

The United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism, set up in 2016, screens commercial cargo bound for ports under Houthi control.

It does not inspect vessels calling at ports held by the internationally recognised government, which run their own procedures.

Aden is the seat of that government and handles container traffic through a terminal on the city’s harbour.

Dual-use goods are items with civilian applications that can also serve military ones, and they are harder to interdict than finished weapons.

Machine tools, resins and small engines are traded in large volumes for legitimate industrial use.

The Houthis began attacking merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in late 2023 and have said the campaign is in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

They have used anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones and uncrewed surface vessels in those attacks.

Uncrewed surface vessels are small boats packed with explosives and steered into a target remotely.

The group has also seized at least one commercial vessel and held its crew.

Shipowners responded by routing vessels around southern Africa, adding time and fuel costs to voyages between Asia and Europe.

War-risk insurance premiums for ships using the Suez Canal route rose over the same period.

The European Union launched Operation Aspides in February 2024 to escort merchant ships through the corridor.

The United States Treasury has sanctioned networks it says move weapons and funds to the Houthis on Iran’s behalf.

The Panel of Experts and the United States Navy have both documented seizures of Iranian-origin weapons aboard vessels bound for Yemen.

Iran denies arming the group.

Analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies argued in January that preventing Houthi rearmament would cost less than a later confrontation.

Bloomberg published a video version of the investigation on 24 September.

The findings were relayed the same day by the Indian outlet BusinessToday and by the defence site Militarnyi.

The Verification and Inspection Mechanism is administered by the United Nations Office for Project Services.

Resolution 2216 also imposed asset freezes and travel bans on named Houthi figures.

Tunnelling equipment of the kind listed in the Aden cargo has civilian applications in mining and construction.

So do computer-controlled machine tools, which cut metal parts to programmed specifications and are standard in light manufacturing.

Saba reported on Thursday that 80 countries had warned of the consequences of Houthi control of the Bab al-Mandab strait for international shipping.

Bab al-Mandab, between Yemen and Djibouti, is the southern entrance to the Red Sea and carries traffic bound for the Suez Canal.

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that its air defences intercepted six ballistic missiles aimed at the Red Sea port of Yanbu and the city of Taif, and blamed the Houthis, The Associated Press reported.

The Houthis said they had fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Jazan province.

Yemen’s war began in 2014, when Houthi forces took Sanaa and the internationally recognised government withdrew to Aden.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of that government.

Guangzhou, the port city named in the shipping documents, is the capital of China’s Guangdong province.