October will see almost all global ocean carriers make a tentative return to Suez transits on Asia-Europe sailings, after revised pro forma shipping schedules showed the Premier Alliance is set to send a vessel on the route through the Red Sea and the Egyptian waterway. The schedule of ONE’s 8,100 TEU One Continuity shows the ship departing Laem Chabang on 19 October after being reassigned to the Premier Alliance’s FE1 Asia-North Europe service, having previously operated on an Asia-South America route with partners HMM and Yang Ming. Cosco is also preparing a landmark voyage, with Linerlytica reporting that after nine eastbound transits via the canal since mid-September, the carrier will send the 24,200 TEU OOCL Spain westbound through Suez on its AEU1/LL1 service on 4 October — its first westbound Suez transit in more than two years.
Data compiled by maritime analytics firm Windward shows the shift is already well under way: Suez containership transits rose 59% between March and September, climbing from 139 to 221, with roughly 100 more large containerships now routing through the canal instead of around Africa compared with March, cutting one to two weeks off each round trip. Even so, Sea-Intelligence data cited by the firm indicates Suez routing for Asia-Europe services has recovered to only about a quarter of pre-crisis levels, while Alphaliner notes carriers expanded Asia-Europe capacity by roughly 41% between May 2023 and May 2025 specifically to cover the longer Cape route — meaning every service that reverts to Suez now frees up vessels no longer needed on that detour. Analysts caution the shift remains fragile, noting that the smaller containerships still transiting the Bab el-Mandeb corridor throughout the diversion period were largely linked to China, Russia and Iran-connected feeder services to Turkey, Egypt and Russia, underscoring how a single new strike in the area could again reverse the nascent return.
Source: gCaptain / The Loadstar — https://gcaptain.com/premier-alliance-prepares-for-asia-n-europe-services-return-to-suez/
Tags: Suez Canal, Red Sea, Container Shipping, Asia-Europe Trade
