Hapag-Lloyd sees further container lines coming back to Suez route

what happened

Hamburg carrier Hapag-Lloyd is looking for more of its services to restart passages through the Suez Canal, on top of two routes now running between Asia and Europe. The information comes from a Suez Canal Authority (SCA) statement reported by Reuters.

The remarks were made in a meeting between SCA Chairman and Managing Director Ossama Rabiee and Juan Pablo Richards, Hapag-Lloyd's senior managing director for South Europe, held at the authority's Irshad Building in Ismailia. Richards said the company is watching Red Sea conditions and maritime safety data to adjust its timetable as traffic slowly returns through Bab el-Mandeb and the canal, and he hoped canal traffic indicators would keep improving.

Rabiee said the canal is ready to handle returning services and pointed to ongoing fleet modernization and new maritime offerings. Talks also covered wider cooperation: the SCA's training academy could work with the Damietta Alliance Container Terminal (Tahya Misr 1) at Damietta Port on ship captain training, and Hapag-Lloyd is a major investor in that terminal. Separately, Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk said it expects all of its services to be back in the canal by March 2027.

why it matters

Returning container lines matter for freight rates and delivery timing across global supply chains. The pace of recovery still depends on Red Sea safety, which carriers are assessing route by route. The story is relevant for container shipping shares and Egyptian port operators.

market impact

Container freight rates and shipping stocks: returning Suez routes can ease capacity pressure, though the pace depends on Red Sea safety.

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