Will CMA CGM be the first liner to resume the Red Sea Route?

MARSEILLE : The 11,388 teu CMA CGM COLUMBA is scheduled to make an eastbound Suez transit on 23 January 2025 after having passed through Suez on 6 December 2024 on its westbound voyage for the Europe Pakistan India Consortium (EPIC) Service that CMA CGM jointly operates with COSCO and OOCL. A CMA CGM spokesperson said that the 2 Suez voyages were ad hoc sailings and the company is closely monitoring the ongoing developments.

The EPIC service has been re-routed to the Cape route since 2024 and currently operated with Cosco and OOCL and also features ONE as a slot charterer, have been diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, the longer distance requiring it be expanded to 13 ships.

On the EPIC’s eastbound leg there is a call at the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah, which prior to the crisis was the country’s principal container gateway, but was omitted from schedules since the Cape diversions began and was instead subsequently served by feeders out of the UAE hub ports.

In an analysis last week, eeSea head of operations and forecasting Destine Ozuygur tipped the French carrier and its Chinese partners to be the first to return to the canal, given “the relatively generous timing for Ocean Alliance’s new Day 9 network roll-out in April ,and previous tests from CMA CGM, OOCL, and Cosco on their partnered non-alliance services suggest we could see an early appearance on these schedules first”.