Ten days after planning to resume navigation in the Red Sea, global shipping giant Maersk announced that it will once again bypass the Cape of Good Hope.
On January 5, as the situation continues to change and remains highly unstable, security risks continue to be at a significantly elevated level. As a result, Maersk has decided that for the foreseeable future, all Maersk ships transiting the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden will move south around the Cape of Good Hope.

On December 31, 2023, Maersk confirmed that the "Maersk Hangzhou" ship was attacked while passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Singapore to the Port of Suez in Egypt. In order to allow time to investigate the details of the incident and further assess the security situation, Maersk decided at that time to Sailing through the area has been suspended.
The decision comes less than a week after Maersk plans to resume Red Sea routes. On December 24, 2023, with the implementation of the "Operation Prosperity Guardian" initiative, Maersk stated that preparations are underway to resume the east-west (Asia-Europe) route through the Red Sea, and are formulating plans to allow the first batch of ships to pass as soon as operationally feasible. plan of.
Previously, due to safety reasons, Maersk first announced the suspension of sailings in the Red Sea. Later, it planned to suspend sailings and all ships passing through the Red Sea area to bypass Africa via the Cape of Good Hope. Due to the unstable situation in the Red Sea, sailing plans continued to change.
The Suez Canal-Red Sea, an international shipping artery, is Asia's throat leading to the Mediterranean and Europe. Usually, the Asia-Europe route mainly takes the Red Sea Channel, which is the main channel for Asia-Europe maritime trade.
The recent instability in the Red Sea region has continued to drive up freight rates. A freight forwarder told The Paper on January 5 that “the space available in early January has been sold out.” Only a few shipping companies have updated their quotations in late January. According to updated quotations, freight rates rose again in late January compared with the first half of January, with small containers increasing by about US$600 and high containers increasing by about US$1,000. The overall increase range was between US$500 and US$1,000.
Specifically, the above freight forwarder pointed out that the freight rates on European routes in late January were US$3,150/TEU (containers with a length of 20 feet) and US$6,050/FEU (containers with a length of 40 feet), compared with the prices at the end of December last year. It has increased by about 2 times. The freight rates on the Mediterranean route are US$4,400/TEU and US$6,250/FEU, which is an increase of about 1.2 to 1.3 times compared with the price at the end of December last year.
Some freight forwarders also pointed out, "Most shipowners have not updated their quotations, but the news given is that the headquarters will have a relatively high desire to increase prices."
Overall, Shanghai's export container freight index continues to rise. On January 5, Shanghai's export container freight index was 1896.65 points, an increase of 137.07 points or 7.79% from the previous period; China's export container freight index increased by 3% month-on-month to 936.83 points.
According to a CCTV News report on January 5, according to data from Fretos Freight, an international freight booking and payment platform, this week, the freight for a 40-foot standard container from Asia to Northern Europe has exceeded US$4,000, 1.7 times higher than before. Freight rates from Asia to the Mediterranean climbed to $5,175. Freight freight rates from Asia to the East Coast of North America have soared 55%, while rates to the West Coast have soared 63%, said Levine, director of research at Fretos Freight. In addition, some international shipping companies have announced that they will increase container freight rates from January 15. The freight rate for a 40-foot standard container from Asia to the Mediterranean will increase to US$6,000. Other companies have proposed imposing transportation interruption surcharges, which may result in a higher total price.
According to the market dynamics from early January to mid-January released by Kuehne+Nagel Group on January 3, against the backdrop of continued tension in the Red Sea, freight rates are expected to remain high until mid-February and do not rule out the possibility of further increases. Among them, for the routes from China to Europe and the Mediterranean, in the first half of January, shipping companies generally pushed up the freight rates at European base ports to US$4,500-5,000/large container, and pushed up the freight rates on the western Mediterranean route to US$5,000-5,500/large container. Regarding the trans-Pacific route from China to the United States, shipping companies successfully pushed up market freight rates in early January and announced that peak season surcharges would be imposed from January 15. The shipping space in the eastbound direction of the United States is tight, and the ongoing situation in the Red Sea has led shipping companies to abandon the Suez Canal and return to the Panama route. Although container liners have priority, there are still waiting times and minor delays. THE alliance's US-Eastern route detours around the Cape of Good Hope, resulting in longer voyages and almost biweekly flight delays.
The above-mentioned market dynamics also show that as of now, the impact of the Red Sea situation has lasted longer than the stranding of the Ever Given in 2021, and there is no solution in sight for the time being; given that the ships that should have returned to Asia from Europe and the east coast of the United States through the Suez Canal Ship schedules are delayed by 2 to 3 weeks due to detours. The crisis of capacity shortage will become increasingly prominent in the next few weeks. Coupled with the peak shipments before the Lunar New Year, there will be a shortage of shipping space. The recent attacks by the Houthi armed forces have forced Maersk to suspend navigation in the Red Sea again within a few weeks. Currently, 12% of the world’s container shipping capacity has detoured around the Cape of Good Hope, and this proportion will continue to rise; due to the lengthened voyage caused by the detour, air traffic has increased. Containers cannot be arrived in time, and the container situation is beginning to become tense. Major shipping companies have made adjustments and shortened the container-free period. If the situation in the Red Sea continues, it is expected that a more serious shortage of containers will occur from the second half of January.