{"id":152567,"date":"2026-08-25T21:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T21:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/152567\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T21:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T21:50:10","slug":"msc-expands-return-to-red-sea-with-four-east-west-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/152567\/","title":{"rendered":"MSC Expands Return to Red Sea With Four East-West Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)<\/a> is bringing multiple East-West services back to the Red Sea<\/a>, marking another major ocean carrier making a slow return to the conflict-ridden waterway<\/a> after nearly three years sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe changes will apply to both westbound and eastbound voyages across four services: Tiger, Jade, Albatros and Himalaya.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe MSC Tina departed Turkey\u2019s Port of Mersin on Aug. 20, marking the first vessel moving on the Asia-to-Mediterranean Tiger service through the Suez Canal. Four days later, the second Tiger vessel, MSC Anna, departed the Port of Singapore.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo more eastbound vessels departed on Aug. 24. The MSC Michel Cappellini on the Asia-to-Mediterranean Jade service left the Abu Qir Port in Egypt, while the MSC Josefina departed Saudi Arabia\u2019s Port Jeddah as part of the Asia-to-North Europe Albatros loop.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Aug. 31, the Himalaya service\u2019s MSC Beryl vessel will depart Vizhinjam Seaport, kicking off a journey from India to the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

\n\tMSC\u2019s transition will be implemented on a service-by-service basis, the container shipping<\/a> firm said in a customer advisory.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndividual booking confirmations and online schedules will be updated progressively to reflect the new voyage plans.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMSC will continue to closely monitor developments throughout the region, in coordination with the relevant authorities and security partners,\u201d the ocean carrier said in the advisory. \u201cThe protection of our seafarers, vessels and customers\u2019 cargo remains our overriding priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tContingency arrangements remain in place, allowing individual voyages to be adjusted should circumstances require.<\/p>\n

\n\tMSC had already begun to send individual ultra-large container ships through the canal earlier this month via several \u201cdark\u201d transits\u2014meaning with their AIS transponder turned off to minimize the risk of Houthi attacks out of Yemen.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith MSC making a partial return, the company joins vessel-sharing alliances like the Gemini Cooperation of Maersk<\/a> and Hapag-Lloyd and the Ocean Alliance led by CMA CGM in shifting more cargo back<\/a> to the Red Sea<\/a>. The Premier Alliance of Ocean Network Express (ONE) HMM and Yang Ming is the only major group to not announce their own plans to return.<\/p>\n

\n\tLars Jensen, CEO of container shipping<\/a> consultancy Vespucci Maritime, noted in his daily industry update on LinkedIn that some Premier Alliance vessels have slots on MSC\u2019s Tiger service and \u201cwill now also de-facto have some cargo go on a Suez routing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt this pace it might be reasonable to see a normalization by end-2026,\u201d said Jensen. \u201cThis normalization can still involve a few services going around Africa for the carriers to absorb some of the resultant excess capacity being released.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this month, chief rival Maersk<\/a> gave the clearest indicator<\/a> yet that there was more of a willingness within the container shipping community to brave out the Red Sea journey.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaersk CEO Vincent Clerc said in an earnings call that the carrier is moving toward a gradual full return to Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Suez Canal, following some service returns of its own.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe conditions for a full return through the Red Sea are met, and that is why we are sending these services through,\u201d said Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc in an earnings call. \u201cWe believe that\u2026the recent developments in rhetoric and attacks on the ground from the Houthis are targeted at different segments and different products than what we exercise, and therefore, that we are not a target at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThus far, Clerc said the services that returned now comprise \u201cabout a third\u201d of the volumes that would ordinarily be transiting through the strait and the canal prior to the Houthi attacks.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Suez Canal Authority unveiled that two ultra-large Maersk container ships, the Bangkok Maersk and the Mathilde Maersk, traveled southbound through the canal on Saturday. The move marked the first voyage of the Bangkok Maersk through the canal since it was built in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Bangkok Maersk is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Singapore on Sept. 5, while the Mathilde Maersk plans to stop next at Sri Lanka\u2019s Port of Colombo on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor westbound sailings, transit times will improve by an average of seven days from the Cape of Good Hope route used since late 2023, Maersk said. On eastbound sailings, transit times will improve by an average of 14 days.<\/p>\n

\n\tCompanies like MSC and Maersk are sailing amid an environment that on paper, remains risky<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeeks after declaring a blockade on Saudi ships and all vessels calling at the country\u2019s ports on the Red Sea, the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked a vessel off the kingdom\u2019s port city \u200bof Yanbu.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group\u2019s \u200cmilitary spokesperson Yahya Saree first made the claim in a televised speech on Monday, with Saudi Arabia\u2019s national shipping company Bahri confirming that one of its vessels, \u200bthe Amzan, was involved in a maritime incident in \u200bthe Red Sea earlier in the day. According to Bahri, \u2060all crew members were safe and no injuries had \u200bbeen reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is bringing multiple East-West services back to the Red Sea, marking another major ocean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[224],"tags":[531,245,15600,7115,746],"class_list":["post-152567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-maersk","tag-container-shipping","tag-maersk","tag-mediterranean-shipping-company-msc","tag-ocean-carriers","tag-red-sea"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117158361671277970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}