News / Tradelanes: More capacity arrives as SSA-Far East volumes grow

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is attracting all sorts of attention, with exports on the up and Far East volumes luring additional capacity and new services from the container shipping lines – although some of its traditional markets are not experiencing quite the same uptick.

Latest data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS), which provides its reports two months in arrears, shows SSA-Far East volumes up 4.1% (to 124,600 teu) year on year for December, meaning five of the last seven months of 2025 saw growth of 3% or more, compared with 2024.

That final month jump helped offset an uneven start to the year, after full-year volumes declined just 1.7% year on year, to 1.4m teu, and helped buoy what sources suggest is a very optimistic tradelane at present.

While CTS may be a touch behind, the optimism that kickstarted the year is supported by data supplied to The Loadstar by South African Association of Freight Forwarders’ head of research and development, Jacob van Rensburg.

Mr van Rensburg noted that “global shipping conditions strengthened on the volume side in December”, adding that they were “particularly strong” on the SSA export side, experiencing a 20% year-on-year bump.

One source told The Loadstar “there definitely seems to be quite a push into alternate African destinations other than South Africa”, echoing what others have been saying over the past six months, with West Africa getting a lot of mentions.

Interestingly, despite the spiking volume demand, Mr van Rensburg pointed to CTS price point data to show that rates “remained subdued”, about 20% down year on year, with the source echoing this, adding: “There is plenty of business – they just want it for nothing and shop it around like a dirty old market.”

The source noting shippers are “always trying to push rates down to ridiculous levels”, even amid surging numbers of enquiries.

As for Far-East-to-SSA volumes, the upturn is even more pronounced, with CTS recording a full-year increase of 26.5% year on year, topping 4.78m teu, after growth ranging between 5% and 48.2% recorded for individual months.

And the carriers seem to have spotted this – both CMA CGM and Maersk announced this week they were doubling-down on, and reorganising, their joint Far East-West Africa coverage, after that trade grew more than 30% last year.

As reported by The Loadstar earlier this week, the two carriers will launch the WAX1/FEW1 service with the departure of the of 14,800 teu CMA CGM Bali from Qingdao on 31 March, the service coming in addition to the Asia-West Africa WAX2/FEW3 service,

Featuring a port rotation of Qingdao–Ningbo–Nansha–Shekou–Singapore–Abidjan–Lekki–Kribi–Vung Tau, the new service’s available capacity has not been announced yet, but the WAX2 service requires 13 vessels to maintain a weekly frequency.

For India/Middle East volumes, Africa has been particularly strong year-round; each month recorded year-on-year volume growth, with eight achieving 16.6% or more, to end 2025 up 17.2%, at 1.7m teu.

Perhaps more notable, however, was the end-of-year surge, with SSA-India/Middle East volumes up 21.1%, 20.3%, and 23.3% for October, November, and December, respectively, leaving the trade for the year up 2.4% year on year, at 879,400 teu.

Again, forwarders The Loadstar has spoken with had noticed increasing demand for SSA goods from Indian and Middle Eastern customers, with one having received “lots” of enquiries about the route.