Container Ship Transits Through the Suez Canal Surpass 50% of Pre-Crisis Levels

During the first two weeks of October 2026, weekly container ship capacity transiting the Suez Canal averaged 753,000 TEU, according to Clarksons Research data cited by BIMCO. That figure marks the first time, since the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea began, that transits have exceeded 50% of the level recorded in the same period of 2023, when the average had been 1.457 million TEU.

The Houthis announced in November 2023 that they would attack Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel's attacks in Gaza, later broadening their targeting criteria to other ships, which created uncertainty across the industry. Starting in December of that year, carriers began diverting their vessels to the Cape of Good Hope route, and weekly capacity through Suez fell as low as 330,000 TEU in the last week of 2023. Between February 2024 and mid-2026, the weekly average held at just 141,000 TEU, equivalent to 11% of 2023 levels, according to BIMCO's chief analyst, Niels Rasmussen.

The shift accelerated starting July 6, 2026, when the Gemini Cooperation alliance, formed by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, announced the return of its AE15/SE3 service between Asia and the Mediterranean. Since then, Gemini has added five more services to its regular rotations, while members of the Ocean Alliance, Premier Alliance and MSC's network also announced itinerary changes, bringing the total to 16 modified services since early July. The Premier Alliance, made up of ONE, HMM and Yang Ming, was the latest to join in: according to Alphaliner, it will reroute its FE1 and IOX services via the Red Sea in both directions, shortening round voyages from 13 to 10 weeks for IOX and by two weeks for FE1.

Data from Lloyd's List Intelligence's Maritime Intelligence Unit show that container ship crossings through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait reached 314 in September, up 64.4% year-on-year and the highest monthly level since the Houthi attacks began in late 2023. Vessels of 7,000 TEU or more drove much of the increase, with 124 transits during the month, while Linerlytica estimated that more than 140 container ships, with a combined capacity exceeding 2 million TEU, have returned to the Suez route since May. Maritime Strategies International calculated that around 35% of Asia-Europe voyages now use the Red Sea.

In the first two weeks of October, 36% of total capacity using either the Suez Canal or the Cape of Good Hope route transited via the Egyptian waterway, up from an average of 8% between 2024 and mid-2026, though still below the pre-attack level of 80%. Rasmussen estimated that the diversions had boosted global container ship demand by roughly 10%, an effect that is now rapidly unwinding, though he warned that the return to Suez has coincided with greater port congestion in Asia, meaning the full impact on the supply-demand balance has yet to be fully observed.