The return to the Red Sea continues to gather pace, with Evergreen resuming their Suez transits starting from this week, becoming the last OCEAN Alliance partner to return to the Suez route. Yangming will be the next carrier to follow as it joins its Premier Alliance partners ONE and HMM on the Suez route from December. All 3 main carrier alliances along with MSC are set to make a full return to the Suez by the 1st quarter of 2027, leaving Zim as the only main carrier left on the Cape route.
Freight rates are starting to come under pressure, with the 1 November rate hikes failing to gain traction and further rate softness is expected in the coming weeks as supply growth is not outpacing growth in demand. However, the red hot Red Sea and Arabian Sea trades have been a key exception as they continue to draw in fresh capacity, with MSC sending their 24,000 teu ships to Khor Fakkan in a new Far East-Middle East service configuration despite severe berthing delays. Port congestion at Middle East ports have surged to a record high, along with increased congestion in Europe last week due to dockworkers on strike to end the militarization of ports addition to the storm disruptions from the previous week.
Johnson Leung
Containership orders surpass previous annual record with 2 months to go
A record breaking 6.4m TEU of new ships have been ordered in the first 10 months of 2026 alone, surpassing all previous annual records. New ship orders have surpassed 5m TEU for the 3rd consecutive year, pushing the orderbook to an all time high of 16.6n TEU with the orderbook ratio rising further to 47.8%. Chinese shipyards account for 89% of the ships ordered so far this year, lifting their share of the total orderbook to 82%, while South Korea’s share slips to 15%.
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