News / Tradelanes: Africa-Europe routes given bite by a bumper fruit season

There appears to be at least one tradelane where forwarders are having a good time lately, namely between Europe and Africa, with capacity, rates, and volumes all heading in the right direction for cargo owners and their logistics partners.

General manager of South Africa for 1Up Cargo Cindy Luyt told The Loadstar both the company and the region would soon be in the “crazy season”, after, for a while now, “everything has been, and will continue to be, busy”.

Ms Luyt added: “Honestly, trade between South Africa and Europe in both directions seems to have been tracking on more or less the same trajectory over the past six months, with no changes either way. Business confidence between both regions remains good.”

That optimism appears to be reflected in data from Container Trade Statistics (CTS), at least partially, with volumes on sub-Saharan Africa to Europe routes having climbed for seven of the first eight months of 2025.

With CTS running two months behind, Ms Luyt and others suggest this growth trend is set to continue, and if CTS’s August figures are anything to go by, up 29% year on year for sub-Saharan Africa-Europe flows, it could prove a bonanza final quarter.

Even on the reverse, the numbers look alright too, and while August may have experienced a slight dip in volumes, 0.6% year on year, it is only the second month of the year to have failed to record growth against 2024.

Another forwarding source told The Loadstar that South Africa-Europe volumes had been helped by a bumper fruit season, with the country exporting some 12,000 teu more citrus fruits that it did the year before.

This, they said, was probably responsible for major spikes in capacity on this route offered by MSC, with data seen by The Loadstar indicating that capacity on its NWC-to-SAF service shot up from an average of 30,000 teu to 53,000 teu and 52,000 teu for June and August, respectively.

Nor was MSC the sole carrier benefiting from this surge in demand, the usually stable routing seeing average capacity across the four services on the route jumping from 61,000 teu in May to 71,000 teu in June.

While coming from a much lower base, Europe-East Africa capacity has almost doubled since June. Serviced by three main liners, the region was benefiting from an average of 9,000 teu per month; this now stands at 17,000 teu.

Further to which, it has welcomed an additional service, MSC’s Mid East/India-Europe IPAK adding a call to Port Louis in Mauritius, which has become one of the more important transhipment hubs for Europe in Africa.

One source suggested the upturn in tonnage could also be the result of a “combination of diverted capacity from Red Sea, some action with the infrastructure projects and maybe some green shoots in their economies”.

Not wanting to leave anywhere out, it is also worth noting that Europe-West Africa capacity has grown from 210,000 teu in July to more than 217,000 in August, with MSC’s Asia-Europe Tiger service making a call.