Maersk makes another big announcement

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Following the resumption of traffic on the AE15 and MECL routes via the Red Sea and Suez Canal, Maersk has further expanded the scope of resumption of sailings.

July 13, local time,The company announced that it will realign the WAF6 route connecting the Middle East, the Mediterranean and West Africa to operate via the Suez Canal-Red Sea route.This is another important move in Maersk’s recent Red Sea sailing resumption plan, showing that its pace of returning to traditional Asia-Europe shipping lanes is accelerating.

Maersk stated in an announcement on July 13 that this route adjustment is aimed at optimizing the operational efficiency of the WAF6 route. The WAF6 route serves the Middle East, Mediterranean and West African markets, passing through key nodes such as Jebel Ali, Salalah, Djibouti, Jeddah, Suez Canal, Tangier and Algeciras. After the adjustment, the route will again pass through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. The company said this move is a continuation of the strategy of gradually restoring the Suez route, which means that the coverage of Red Sea navigation is continuing to expand.

Previously, on July 9, Maersk announced that it would adjust its independently operated MECL route from bypassing the Cape of Good Hope to passing through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. This route connects India, the Middle East and the east coast of the United States. After the restoration of the Suez Canal route, the average transportation time for westbound voyages is expected to be shortened by 7 days, and the average transit time for eastbound voyages is shortened by 14 days. According to the plan, the first westbound ship to pass through the Suez Canal will be the "Maersk Denver" and the first eastbound ship to be the "Maersk Chicago". In addition, Maersk also announced that it will add a call at the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah in the eastbound direction of the route starting from August to enhance the transshipment connection capacity in the Red Sea region.

Earlier, Maersk had cooperated with Hapag-Lloyd to take the lead in resuming trial operations via the Red Sea on the "Gemini" alliance AE15 route. The AE15 route has been re-planned to connect the Asian and Mediterranean markets via Port Said and the new hub terminal of Damietta. The company stated that the above decisions are based on ongoing safety assessments and emphasized that it has formulated a complete emergency plan while resuming routes.

Maersk also emphasized that the safety of crews, ships and customers' cargo is always the primary consideration and will continue to closely monitor the situation in the Middle East. Once the safety environment deteriorates, the company will immediately activate an emergency plan and will not rule out re-circling the Cape of Good Hope. According to the assessment of shipping safety agencies, although the overall risk in the Red Sea has declined, there is still the possibility of accidental safety incidents near the Bab el-Mandab Strait. Shipping companies generally adopt a dynamic management model of "navigation and assessment".

As the number of resumed routes increases, market competition factors are gradually emerging. Haider Anjum, a senior analyst at Denmark's Jyske Bank, pointed out that CMA CGM has continued to operate through the Red Sea with the support of security guarantees such as the French Navy in recent years. It can provide customers with shorter transportation times and has formed certain advantages in market competition. CMA CGM has resumed some Red Sea routes since the end of 2025, and in the process has accumulated a set of navigation procedures and insurance arrangements for high-risk sea areas, giving it a clear timeliness advantage in its service products on European routes. Customers tend to choose services with shorter transportation times. Maersk’s resumption of the Red Sea route is also to maintain its market share to a certain extent.

Analysts believe that as CMA CGM, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd resume Red Sea sailings, other large liner companies such as Mediterranean Shipping Company may also face greater competitive pressure in the future and re-evaluate their decision to resume sailings.

According to industry observations, although MSC has recently resumed some shipping services via the Red Sea, the scope of its resumption is still relatively limited, and a systematic route network reconstruction has not yet been formed. The industry predicts that if the regional security situation remains stable, the world's major route networks are expected to return to 70% to 80% of normal levels this year, and full recovery may still take until 2027. This judgment still depends on the security situation in the Middle East not deteriorating significantly, and major shipping companies will continue to dynamically adjust route deployments based on risk assessments. In the early stages of resumption of sailing, the centralized navigation of ships may put periodic pressure on the traffic efficiency of the Suez Canal and the turnover of European port yards. The coordinated dispatching of shipping companies and ports will be one of the key variables affecting the progress of resumption of sailing.

For freight forwarders, the accelerated pace of Maersk's resumption of sailings on the Red Sea this time means that the space supply structure of European routes is changing - the resumption of sailing routes has shortened the voyage and released part of the capacity occupied by detours, which may have a stabilizing effect on subsequent freight rates. At the same time, the new Jeddah call also provides more connection options for transshipment cargo flows in the Red Sea and East Africa directions. It is recommended that freight forwarders pay attention to the actual shipping schedule recovery progress and space release of each route, distinguish the timeliness difference between the "detour plan" and the "canal plan" when quoting, and adjust the recommended route according to the distribution of the customer's destination port.