Two major freight firms including MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co, the world’s biggest container shipping line, on Saturday said they would avoid the Suez Canal as Houthis in Yemen stepped up their assaults on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi movement has been attacking vessels in response to the Gaza war on a route that allows East-West trade, and especially oil, to use the Suez Canal to save the time and expense of circumnavigating Africa. War risk insurance premiums have risen as a result. The Liberian-flagged MSC Palatium III was attacked on Friday with a dron…