Container ship owners and operators continue to avoid the Suez Canal amid ongoing security risk in Red Sea.
Between January and April, 647 vessels have traversed the Canal in either direction. By comparison, the number of crossings of the Suez Canal prior to the Red Sea crisis had exceeded 550 in a single month.
Since the start of the year, 70.6% of all container ships passing through the Canal were sub-Panamax vessels of less than 4,000 TEU capacity. As a reminder, this subfleet traditionally accounted for between 10% and 15% of the total container ship traffic through the Suez Canal before October 2023.
Vessels between 4,000 and 7,500 TEU have traversed the Canal 125 times since the start of the year, while 65 Container Ships of TEU capacity between 7,500 and 18,000 passed through during the same period. Both numbers are indicative of weaker traffic for the respective fleet segments than the already heavily suppressed 2024.
There have been no ULCS or Megamax Container Ships of 18,000 TEU capacity have made over a full year since the last vessel of this type last sailed through the Suez Canal.
Source: Alphaliner.
