BAROMETER. Despite the ongoing tensions in the region, the shipping companies are increasingly routing services via the Red Sea in an effort to keep tonne-mile ratios acceptable.
The situation in the Middle East
- Shipping services return to Suez in greater numbers
The net tonnage of container ships transiting the Suez Canal totalled 72.1 million tonnes in the first eight months of 2026, according to a communique from the Suez Canal Authority on 16 September. This amounts to an increase of 54.2% compared to the same period in 2025. For some weeks now, the big container shipping companies have been increasing the number of transits made by 10,000 TEU-plus vessels through the Red Sea.
The principal driver of this trend is not demand. The shipping companies have made this choice above all for profitability reasons. The journey round the Cape of Good Hope does not allow them to make the same number of round trips in a year. In the meantime, operational costs have increased greatly, and the tonne-mile ratio has shot up. Since all the big companies use fairly similar cost optimisation models, it is logical that they should choose to make greater use of Suez at much the same time. None of them wants to lose a decisive competitive advantage.
Given the sharp increase in bunker prices, the shorter route via the Suez Canal has become more attractive from a simple mathematical point of...
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