PREMIER Alliance will route two more Asia-Mediterranean services through the Suez Canal from November, further accelerating the container shipping sector’s return to the Red Sea and leaving just a handful of major services on the trade sailing exclusively around the Cape of Good Hope.
The alliance partnership — made up of HMM, Yang Ming and Ocean Network Express, will redirect its Asia-east Mediterranean MD1 service and Mediterranean-Far East-US west coast MS2/MP2 pendulum through Suez, according to Alphaliner. Mediterranean Shipping Co also takes slots on the two services, which it markets as its Lynx and Panther offerings, respectively.
The move follows Premier Alliance’s decision earlier this month to return its Southeast Asia-northern Europe FE1 and northern Europe-Indian subcontinent IOX/INX services to the Red Sea route.
The latest changes mean all but three services offered by the major liner operators on the Asia-Mediterranean trade are now using Suez exclusively.
A further two, Ocean Alliance’s MED1 and MSC’s Dragon service, continue to use the Cape of Good Hope in one direction only.
Gemini Cooperation’s Asia-Mediterranean services are now all routed through Suez, while MSC and Ocean Alliance have only those two one-way Cape exceptions.
HMM’s Far East-India-Mediterranean FIM pendulum, Zim’s standalone ZMP and Tailwind Shipping Lines’ Panda Express remain the only major services continuing to use the Cape in both directions, according to Linerlytica. Evergreen has refrained from returning to the Red Sea with its ships operating under the Ocean Alliance maintaining Cape sailings. However, the carrier’s scheduling under the Ocean Alliance’s MD2 service does indicate that the Ever Gifted (IMO: 9786827) will revert to the traditional Suez routing from next month.
The shift back to Suez is already most advanced on Asia-Mediterranean trades, where 70%-80% of westbound capacity and 80%-90% eastbound is expected to use the canal in November and December, according to Sea-Intelligence. The analysts put the wider Asia-Europe figure at around 60% and expects a full return by the first quarter of 2027, barring, of course, further attacks in the Red Sea.
Premier expands Suez network
Premier Alliance’s MD1 will adopt its new routing with the November 14 departure of the 11,714 teu YM Trust (IMO: 9789972)from Ningbo.
The service will operate with 12 Yang Ming ships of between 11,700 teu and 15,600 teu, calling at Ningbo, Shanghai, Shekou, Singapore, Sokhna, Damietta, Ambarli, Yarimca, Mersin and Damietta before returning through Suez towards Singapore, Kaohsiung and Ningbo, according to Alphaliner.
The revised rotation adds a westbound call at Sokhna while dropping Piraeus, although the Greek port will instead be served by the MS2/MP2 pendulum.
That service is due to switch with the departure of the 13,932 teu One Synergy (IMO: 9976197) from Qingdao on November 28.
Yang Ming and Ocean Network Express vessels of between 13,900 teu and 15,600 teu have so far been nominated for the revised MS2/MP2 rotation, which links Asia and the Mediterranean before continuing across the Pacific to Long Beach and Oakland, Alphaliner noted.
The changes add to an increasingly broad restoration of Suez services among the world’s major container lines, transforming a recovery that initially consisted of individual sailings and selected services into a wider restructuring of carrier networks back towards their pre-crisis routings.
Suez capacity rebounds
The network changes are increasingly visible in Suez traffic.
Around 3m teu of containership capacity passed through the canal during the four weeks to late October, more than double August levels, although still well below the approximately 5.5m teu recorded in October 2023 before the Red Sea shipping crisis.
The return is also increasingly being driven by the largest ships.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows 21 megamax containerships of more than 20,000 teu had transited the canal by October 28.
Among the latest were the 23,756 teu MSC Febe (IMO: 9839478), which passed northbound while operating MSC’s Asia-Mediterranean Jade service and was bound for Valencia, and the 24,100 teu MSC Raya (IMO: 9930052), which made a southbound transit on the same service bound for Singapore.
More than 70 containerships of at least 16,000 teu passed through Suez during the first 28 days of October, while more than 120 have made the journey since the beginning of September.
That compares with only 99 ships of this size during the whole of 2025.
The scale of the recovery marks a significant change from the first stages of the Suez reopening, when returning traffic was characterised by smaller ships and selective or one-way Red Sea transits.
Cape unwind releases capacity
The return to the shorter route is also beginning to unwind the additional capacity required to maintain schedules around the Cape.
Linerlytica estimates total capacity deployed on the Asia-Mediterranean trade has fallen by 470,000 teu since July, as more than half of services have returned to the Suez route.
As many as 40 ships released from the trade have already been redeployed, with transpacific and Latin American services absorbing most of the displaced tonnage, it said.
The effect has yet to become as apparent on the Asia-northern Europe trade, where port congestion in both northern Europe and Asia continues to absorb excess capacity.
Linerlytica expects the return to Suez to start reducing deployed capacity on northern Europe services in December as additional ships are released from the longer Cape rotations.
That represents the next stage of the Suez recovery for a container market that has spent almost three years operating with the substantial additional vessel requirements created by Cape diversions.
