Container carriers are now restarting services via the Red Sea amid a continued reduction in Houthi attacks on maritime shipping, according to reports.
- One of the routes connects India via the Middle East with the US operated by AP Moeller Maersk, confirming earlier reports that Indian shippers will benefit from a service for reefer products.
- To benefit from increased traffic, Red Sea Container Terminals opened Egypt’s first semiautomated facility at Sokhna Port near the southern entrance to the Suez Canal in mid-January 2026, the Journal of Commerce reports.
- Sending more vessels through the Suez Canal might present a downward pressure point on freight rates as capacity is freed from the longer Cape of Good Hope diversion.
- While these developments might mean more capacity going through the Suez Canal in the coming months, the situation could easily change if the Houthis resume their attacks.
- An indicator of the volatility of the situation is CMA CGM SA’s announcement that some of its Asia-Europe services (FAL1, FAL3 and MEX) that went through the Suez Canal in 2025 will go back to transiting via the Cape of Good Hope, as a result of a “complex and uncertain international context,” adding to the uncertainty that shippers are facing when planning journey times and amid renewed threats of attacks by the Houthis in January 2026.
- The share of east-to-west shipments via the canal remains at 18.7%, close to its two-year average and well below the pre-disruption level of about 80%.
- According to Market Intelligence analysis, there remains a severe risk of attacks on vessels in transit in the one-year outlook if, as is likely, the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel breaks down permanently.
- If those attacks resume, the risk for vessels is likely to remain highest closest to, and inside, Yemeni territorial waters in areas controlled by the Houthi, particularly around Hodeidah where the Houthi likely maintains a significant arsenal of anti-ship cruise missiles, uncrewed surface vessels (USV) and uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV).
- All Houthi attack incidents using USVs have been conducted within a 70-nm radius of Hodeidah.
- The Houthis have been using the period since the announcement of a ceasefire to rearm and increase weapons shipments via Iran and the Horn of Africa and rebuild port infrastructure and facilities around Ras Isa and Hodeidah, including new jetties and artificial island facilities to support tanker and cargo ships. Those were damaged in Israeli and US airstrikes. This aligns with a similar tactical pause in attack activity that the group adopted during the previous ceasefire in Gaza from Jan. 19–March 16, 2025.
Source: Platts
