Spotlight
Maersk to resume Suez transits on India-USEC loop
Maersk has finalized operational plans to reinstate regular sailings on its India – US East Coast“ MECL” network via the traditional— and significantly shorter— Red Sea / Suez Canal route following two uneventful trial passages in December, multiple sources told the Journal of Commerce. The normal schedule will take effect with a late January or early February vessel departure out of India.“ The MECL is going to go via the Suez on a permanent basis soon,” said a Maersk Middle East executive who asked not to be identified. Officially, the carrier declined to confirm details of its Suez Canal plans.“ We cannot comment on specific vessels’ schedules and potential deviations,” Maersk said. Following the successful transit of the Maersk Sebarok through the Suez and Red Sea in December, the carrier sent the Maersk Denver through the waterway in January; both vessels are part of the MECL service linking India to the US East Coast( USEC) and are not part of the Gemini Cooperation alliance between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. Major carriers have mostly avoided the Red Sea and Suez Canal since late 2023 when Houthi militants operating in Yemen began their attacks on commercial shipping to protest Israel’ s move into Gaza.
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‘ Unexpected’ margin boost lifts ocean carriers’ 2025 results
Ocean carriers are expected to report“ better-thanexpected” full-year 2025 results due to higher profit margins through the third quarter and slowing fleet growth, according to maritime consultancy Drewry. Although rates softened and volume slowed on the major east-west trade lanes through the fourth quarter, Drewry is also revising its prior loss-making forecast for 2026. The consultancy now expects the industry to turn a profit despite little clarity over the timing of a widespread return to Red Sea transits that would release 8 % of global capacity back into an already oversupplied market. Simon Heaney, senior manager for container research at Drewry, said the container shipping sector’ s earnings before interest and taxes( EBIT) margins fell to 12.3 % in the third quarter of 2025, well below the 34.5 % margin recorded in third-quarter 2024 but still a significant rate-supported improvement on the 7.9 % margin in the 2025 second quarter.“ This was an unexpected change of direction as we had anticipated that margins would shrink further in Q3 2025,” Heaney told the Journal of Commerce. Those results prompted Drewry to upgrade its industrywide 2025 profit forecast from $ 20 billion to $ 32 billion and raise the outlook for 2026 from a $ 10 billion loss to a $ 1 billion profit.
Fast-tracked projects boost heavy-lift air freight
Air freight specialists are predicting buoyant times ahead for project cargo as shippers seek certainty amid geopolitical and trade upheaval. Shippers are increasingly balancing out the extra cost of using air freight against the penalties or costs of a project being delivered late if they opt for sea freight, experts say.“ Some projects have a rush of air freight at the start, then use shipping, then there is a rush of air freight at the end,” said Dan Morgan-Evans, group director for cargo at specialist air freight broker Air Charter Service( ACS). Andreas Menzel, managing director for Germany and Benelux at project forwarder Trans Global
Projects( TGP), told the Journal of Commerce some TGP customers are“ looking for quick solutions. With all the trade interruptions globally, including the Suez Canal and other impacts, air freight is becoming more and more critical to deliver time-sensitive cargo.” Over the past five years, the cost of aircraft charters had been so high that project cargo air freight volumes fell below pre-COVID levels, Morgan-Evans said.“[ A ] ir freight prices have dropped, and the cost of an aircraft charter is much lower than in previous years. This should give us an opportunity,” he said.“ With prices now down and choice and competitiveness in the market, pricing is more at a level that facilitates project cargo air freight movements.”
Egypt opens new Red Sea terminal as Suez traffic grows
Red Sea Container Terminals( RSCT) in January opened Egypt’ s first semiautomated facility at Sokhna Port near the southern entrance to the Suez Canal. The new terminal was developed by a consortium of Hutchison Ports, CMA Terminals and Cosco Shipping Ports and backed by a 30-year concession agreement
6 Journal of Commerce | February 2, 2026 www. joc. com