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More carriers return to Suez Canal transits
Over the past few months, a significant number of major shipping lines have returned to transiting through the Suez Canal. At a recent meeting with local ship agents and shipping lines, Admiral Ossama Rabiee, Chairman and Managing Director of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), attributed this resurgence to flexible pricing policies and effective communication with clients and pointed out that the SCA’s Crisis Management Centre continues to monitor regional developments around the clock, assessing their impact on canal navigation.
At the meeting, Tarek Zaghloul, CEO of CMA CGM Group in Egypt and Sudan, noted that the line has continued transiting the Canal since the Red Sea tensions began, with 60 of its vessels passing through in September, underscoring its commitment to using the Canal as the shortest and fastest route. On a similar note, Hany El Nady, A.P. Moller-Maersk Group representative in the Middle East and North Africa, said that the number of Maersk’s transits have increased from eight during September 2025 to 67 during September of this year.
Ashraf Sami, General Manager of Yang Ming, reported the company was giving serious consideration to resuming Suez Canal transit’s in the near future, while Abd El-Aziz Nabil, General Manager of the maritime agency Inchcape reported that OOCL’s intention was to carry out an experimental transit in October this year.
Hany El-Sallamy, General Manager at COSCO, informed the meeting that the Chinese carrier is considering increasing its voyages through the Canal after one of its affiliated containerships, OOCL Portugal, successfully transited in September. A further three ships affiliated to the shipping line are scheduled to transit through the Canal in the near future.
The SCA has also recently reported a significant increase in container vessels using the canal this year. Net tonnage carried by containerships transiting the Suez Canal reached approximately 72.1 million tonnes between January and August 2026, up 54.2% from 46.7 million tonnes during the same period in 2025. The latest figures point to a clear recovery in container traffic through the waterway after the prolonged disruption to shipping in the Red Sea and the diversion of vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.
