CMA CGM will join Asyad Line and Folk Maritime on the India-Red Sea Service (IRS), with the French carrier branding the service as the India Red Sea Express/India Gulf Express 3 (BIGEX3). CMA CGM will join the IRS/BIGEX3 service that calls at Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Salalah, Jeddah, Nhava Sheva from 22 February 2025, adding a 3rd ship to the service as the sailing frequency is upgraded from 10 days to 7 days. The 3 partners will operate 1 ship each with CMA CGM's 2,524 teu ZHE CHENG XIN ZHOU joini
Container freight futures have rallied sharply, with December 2025 contracts surging by 53% over the past week as hopes for an early return of containerships to the Suez route fade. Since the 19 January ceasefire agreement in Gaza, there has been no ships diverted back to the Suez route with all main carriers retaining their Cape routing at least until March. The potential return of the diverted Suez ships would release up to 7% of the global containership capacity with the resumption of slow s
SeaLead has launched a new Red Sea-India (RESIN) service calling at Jeddah, Sokhna, Nhava Sheva, Jeddah from 23 January 2025. The service turns in 3 weeks and will deploy 3 ships of 1,600-2,000 teu starting with the 1,660 teu GHIBLI at Jeddah on 23 January 2025.
The crew of the 1,930 teu ASL BAUHINIA has abandoned the containership in the Red Sea on 28 January 2025 after it caught fire following an explosion on board the vessel. The 2022 built ship is owned by Asean Seas Line and time chartered by Emirates Shipping Lines since October 2024. It is currently deployed on the Gulf Red Sea Connector (EGRC) service that connects Jebel Ali, Jeddah, Aqaba, Sokhna, Jebel Ali and had left Jebel Ali on 22 January and was scheduled to arrive at Jeddah on 29 Januar
Carriers will retain their current Cape of Good Hope routing in February with no immediate return planned to the Red Sea despite the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement concluded on 19 January 2025. According to Linerlytica’s survey of vessels diverted to the Cape route, the total number of ships have risen in the last 10 days driven by the busy shipping window before the Chinese New Year. If the fragile ceasefire in Gaza fails to hold, the vessel diversions affecting some 350 ships for 4.5m TEU c
Port congestion continues to hold up 8.5% of the global fleet at the end of last week, with European and Southeast Asian ports experiencing worsening delays ahead of the new alliance reshuffle that will take place in early February. Very high yard utilization is reported across all main European ports, with Rotterdam under particular scrutiny as the ECT labour dispute threatens to spiral into strikes although no confirmed dates have been announced. Although market attention has shifted to the e
The number of containership transits via the Red Sea has dropped by 70% since November 2023 when the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping started. The average number of monthly transits dropped from 606 in the first 11 months of 2023 to just 174 in 2024. When measured by total TEU capacity, the drop is even more severe at 91% as the average monthly capacity of containerships on the Red Sea has fallen from 5.9m teu last year to just 544,000 teu in 2024. Several carriers have retained their
Sidra Line has added a new East Med Red Sea (EMR) service calling at Mersin, Iskenderun, Jeddah, Port Sudan, Beirut, Lattakia, Mersin from 9 December 2024 with the 158 teu general cargo ship INFORMED. The service turns in 23 days on an irregular rolling schedule.
SeaLead has launched a new Djibouti-Red Sea-Asia Express (DRAX) service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Cai Mep, Port Klang, Colombo, Djibouti, Cai Mep, Shanghai from 7 November 2024. The DRAX service will turn in 7 weeks and will deploy initially 3 ships of 3,400-4,600 teu starting with the 3,451 teu LIDIA at Shanghai on 7 November 2024 followed by the 4,636 teu ZHONG GU XI AN and ZHONG GU YIN CHUAN that will join on 23 November abd 24 November respectively. Port rotation of the new DRAX
CMA CGM has continued to send its Asia-Med ships on the Red Sea/Suez route for its services calling at Lebanon. The 16,022 teu CMA CGM JULES VERNE passed the Bab al-Mandab Strait on a northbound transit on 23 October 2024 without incident. The ship will make a stop at Jeddah and Beirut before resuming its regular Mediterranean Club Express (MEX) stops at Malta, Valencia, Barcelona and Fos before returning to Beirut for a second off-schedule call on 20 November. The ship is scheduled to make anot