International. Container ship capacity passing through the Suez Canal averaged 753,000 TEU a week in the first two weeks of October 2026, about half the 1,457,000 TEU of the same period in 2023 and the first time transits have exceeded 50 per cent of pre-disruption levels since the Houthi attacks, BIMCO chief shipping analyst Niels Rasmussen wrote on 16 October, citing Clarksons Research data.
From February 2024 to mid-2026, weekly capacity through the canal averaged just 141,000 TEU, about 11 per cent of 2023 levels. About 36 per cent of container capacity routed via either the canal or the Cape of Good Hope used the canal in early October, against 8 per cent on average in 2024 to mid-2026 and about 80 per cent before the attacks.
The shift began with the Gemini Alliance’s 6 July announcement on its AE15/SE3 service, and changes have since been announced for 16 services across several alliances and MSC. BIMCO estimates the rerouting raised global container ship demand by about 10 per cent, an effect now fading, though rising Asian port congestion makes the overall impact uncertain. For Bangladesh, whose Europe-bound cargo moves via transhipment hubs, the route change matters for transit times and freight costs.
Source
- Cyprus Shipping News (BIMCO): “BIMCO Shipping Number of the Week” (16 October 2026)
File photo: a ship in the Suez Canal. Photo: Zdravko Pečar / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This article is a summary prepared by Maritime News BD from the report(s) listed above; it was not independently reported by Maritime News BD.
