Impact of Maersk’s return to the Red Sea gets analysed

An article on the Splash247 website provides a good analysis of the importance of this week’s news that Maersk is taking its first structural step back into Red Sea / Suez canal transits.

This makes interesting reading for the U-Freight Group as well as the clients that use our international container shipping services for LCL and FCL cargoes.

The article reports that analysts are voicing caution that this could mark the start of big shift from the Cape of Good Hope through the Suez with a significant knock-on effect for the bottom lines of global liners in 2026.

Maersk, the world’s second largest liner, announced it is permanently rerouting its MECL service, connecting the Middle East and India with the US east coast.

The structural return kicks off with the Cornelia Maersk departing Oman’s port of Salalah on January 26, while the Maersk Detroit will become the first eastbound ship back through Suez on February 3.

The decision follows two initial trial sailings through the corridor of the Maersk Sebarok and the Maersk Denver and forms part of a gradual, stepwise approach to resuming East–West navigation via the Red Sea. 

Shipping analysts at SEB, a Scandinavian bank, said they expect other ocean carriers to follow suit. 

Peter Sand, who heads up research at container rate platform Xeneta, observed that Maersk has been the most risk-averse out of the major carriers regarding a return to the Red Sea, hence his description of yesterday’s news as a “turning point”.

The full article, which is well worth a read, can be seen here: https://splash247.com/what-maersks-return-to-the-red-sea-means-for-carrier-profits-in-2026/

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