Just to advise that Maersk / HAPAG are increasingly routing vessels via the Suez Canal.
Especially from Ningbo and Qingdao we see several departures planned to ship via Suez. And some shipments that departed this week have also been re-routed via Suez. The average transit time improvement is around 10 days.

We are getting close to Christmas. The additional benefit of using Maersk is that after Tanjung Pelepas the first port of call is London Gateway. That avoids congested ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, Zeebrugge.

Update from Maersk:

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The Brussels Maersk, voyage 639W, set sail from Shanghai on 12 October 2026 to Tanjung Pelepas. From Tanjung Pelepas it will sail to the Suez Canal, set to arrive on 30 October 2026.

During this time, it will transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and into the Red Sea.Throughout its transit, all necessary safety measures will be applied to ensure the safety of our crew, the vessel and your cargo.

What does this mean for future sailings?
This sailing is a one-off.If the security thresholds continue to be met, we will consider additional trans-Suez sailings in the coming time. However, we are not at a point where we are changing the full East-West network back to the trans-Suez corridor. We will keep our customers updated on any changes.

“unquote”

This is the schedule for the Brussels Maersk

https://www.maersk.com/schedules/vesselSchedules?vesselCode=DN6&fromDate=2026-10-14

That is a 28 day transit time from departure Shanghai to arrival in London Gateway. Expected arrival in Dublin is 17NOV26, 36 days overall transit time.

At the moment we are checking all options and are looking at all carriers that are routing (some of) their vessels via Suez.

https://theloadstar.com/shippers-stressing-over-risks-from-suez-canal-and-red-sea-transits/

We draw your attention to the Marine Cargo Insurance that you may have in place. It is important to check what impact – if any – a routing via Suez has on your insurance premium.