Military forces will assist one of the largest container shipping alliances in its return to a violence-plagued Middle East trade route.
A.P. Moller-Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd said Tuesday that they are routing one of their shared services through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. All transits will be secured by naval assistance, the companies said in an announcement. They did not offer further details, and FreightWaves has reached out for comment.
Major container lines and tanker operators diverted traffic away from the region in early 2024 after Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked Israel-linked merchant ships in solidarity with Palestinians. The United States and European Union in 2024 and 2025 bombed Houthi positions, and provided escorts for commercial vessels. But the region has proved too unstable and carriers continue to divert ships on the Asia-U.S. route on longer voyages around the tip of Africa.
Maersk (MAERSK–B.CO) and CMA CGM of France recently operated test voyages through the Suez Canal.
The new routing is Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s cooperative Gemini ME11 service connecting India and the Middle East with the Mediterranean. “Beginning in mid-February, changes will be implemented on westbound sailings with the Albert Maersk and on eastbound sailings with the vessel Astrid Maersk,” the carriers said.
Major changes to headhaul services are more complicated than simply re-routing vessels, and affect capacity, vessel utilization, port rotations and service reliability. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd in the announcement emphasized that the new routing will emphasize schedule reliability – Gemini’s essential raison d’entre. The alliance posted 90% on-time reliability in 2025, 10 points better than its closest rival.
Hapag-Lloyd (HLG.DE) and Maersk plan to route their AE12 and AE15 services through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal “at a later stage.”
“No further changes to the Gemini network related to the Red Sea are foreseen at this stage,” they said.
Gemini was launched in early 2025 and covers 29 mainliner and 29 shuttle services on east-west trade routes.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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