Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd add four Asia-Europe services to Suez route
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd announced today that four more Asia-Europe services will return to Suez transits on their headhaul westbound sailings. The first vessels set to sail are the 15,150‑teu Antonia Maersk on AE11 departing Tanjung Pelepas on 19 September, the 18,000‑teu Marchen Maersk on AE5 departing on 21 September, and the 8,650‑teu Cornelia Maersk on ME2 departing Colombo on 24 September.
The Asia‑North Europe AE5, Asia‑Mediterranean AE11 and AE12, and India‑Europe ME2 services will now transit via the Suez Canal instead of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. The first vessels are the 15,150‑teu Antonia Maersk on AE11 departing Tanjung Pelepas on 19 September, the 18,000‑teu Marchen Maersk on AE5 departing on 21 September, and the 8,650‑teu Cornelia Maersk on ME2 departing Colombo on 24 September. These services join the existing AE15 and AE19 Asia‑Mediterranean strings that already use the Suez route.
“It is very evident that the carriers favour a normalisation on the back-haul much more than a normalisation on the head-haul,” Sea-Intelligence said.
Prior to this announcement, only the AE15 and AE19 Asia‑Mediterranean services of the Gemini Cooperation were using the Suez Canal for head‑haul voyages. Sea‑Intelligence noted that 38 % of back‑haul capacity is now routed via Suez as carriers seek to avoid congested ports after recent typhoons in Asia. The analyst warned that renewed Houthi military activity in Yemen could jeopardise further Suez transits.
What we know
The Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd today announced that four more Asia-Europe services are returning to Suez transits on their headhaul westbound sailings.
The first vessel to undertake the Suez transit on the AE11 will be the 15,150 teu Antonia Maersk, and on the AE5 the 18,000 teu Marchen Maersk, which are due to depart Tanjung Pelepas on 19 and 21 September respectively, while the ME2’s first vessel will be the 8,650 teu Cornelia Maersk, due to depart Colombo on 24 September.
According to new data from Sea-Intelligence Consulting, published just prior to this latest Gemini announcement, 18% of overall headhaul westbound Asia-Europe capacity has now diverted away from the Cape of Good Hope and returned to the Red Sea and Suez in what the analyst terms a “normalisation” of services.
Sea-Intelligence calculates that 38% of backhaul capacity is now routed via this lane.