News / Suez transits increasing, but still 60% fewer than pre-Red Sea crisis

Photo: Suez Canal Authority

The Suez Canal Authority says a cargo ship that ran aground at the northern entrance to the waterway does not pose a risk to shipping, as the organisation eyes increasing numbers of vessels returning.

According to casualty reports, a 44-year-old general cargo ship, the 4,000gt Fener, was en route to Turkey with a shipment of salt from East Port Said and had anchored nearby to wait out poor weather.

However, when it began taking on water, the SCA said, the “vessel’s master moved south of the anchorage area to aground the vessel to prevent it from sinking”. The authority sent salvage teams afterwards.

SCA chairman Ossama Rabiee said the grounding would have no effect on canal passages, as the state-owned organisation continued its efforts to entice carriers to resume canal transits.

Although it is now over 120 days since the last Houthi attack on commercial shipping, carriers continue to approach the resumption of Red Sea transits with caution, according to Alphaliner.

“Shipping volumes through the Suez Canal remained 60% below the same period in 2023 in the first week of this year, underlining that carriers have yet to return to the route, despite the absence of attacks and the subsequent signing of a ceasefire.

“Container shipping has seen the greatest decline among the major ship segments, and the last quarter of 2025 recorded an 86% drop in box transits versus the same period in 2023,” it writes today.

According to the newly launched Red Sea Diversions Tracker from Drewry Shipping Consultants, last week (week 2) saw 26 container vessels transit the canal, including five of more than 8,000 teu from CMA CGM and MSC, as well as a score from smaller niche carriers which have largely continued transits during the Red Sea crisis.

Drewry added that this was up from 10 the previous week, although week-on-week comparisons at this time of year were misleading, due to the Christmas/New Year holiday period. The consultancy noted that the number of voyages via the Cape of Good Hope showed  similar increase over the same period, from 72 in week one to 175 in week two.

It said that, prior to the Red Sea crisis, the Suez Canal would typically see “about 55 per week northbound and 25 per week southbound”.

This shows how the Houthi attacks turned shipping on its head; traditionally, carriers favoured sending some vessels on backhaul sailings to Asia round the Cape, often slow-steaming, as a way of saving canal fees and absorbing excess capacity, while laden headhaul vessels would transit Suez. Today, it is the backhaul vessels that are largely making transits while Europe-bound vessels continue to sail around South Africa.

Evidence of this dynamic was seen on 23 December, when CMA CGM put its flagship vessel, the 23,000 teu CMA CGM Jacques Saade, on a southbound transit (pictured above).

“The return to the Suez Canal route is one of this year’s key influencing factors for capacity, freight rates, transit times, and fuel consumption, and we believe our new Red Sea Diversion Tracker will help inform thousands of stakeholders in shipping,” said Drewry MD Philip Damas.

The last to suffer an attack by the Houthis was Dutch multipurpose vessel Minervagracht, on 29 September, which was hit by rockets, killing one crew member.