Premier Alliance Prepares for Asia-N Europe Services Return to Suez

By Gavin van Marle (The Loadstar) –  October will see almost all global ocean carriers make a tentative return to Suez transits on Asia-Europe sailings, after revised pro forma shipping schedules show the Premier Alliance is set to send one of its vessels on the route through the Red Sea and Egyptian waterway.

The schedule of the 8,100 teu One Continuity, published by Japanese carrier ONE, shows the vessel departing Laem Chabang on 19 October, after being reassigned to the Premier Alliance’s FE1 Asia-North Europe service.

According to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database, it has been deployed on ONE’s Asia-South America east coast SX1 service, operated in conjunction with Premier Alliance partners HMM and Yang Ming.

According to the new FE1 pro forma, One Continuity will arrive at the Suez Canal on 9 November, and then at its first European port of call, Rotterdam, on 19 November.

Other vessels in the FE1 service – the 9,000 teu NYK Venus, 8,200 teu ONE Hamburg, and 9,000 teu NYK Orion – are all also scheduled for Suez transits after leaving Asia in November and December.

Meanwhile, Cosco vessels are also reportedly set to transit the Suez Canal, in the westbound direction, for the first time since the onset of the Red Sea Crisis, at the beginning of 2025.

“After nine eastbound voyages scheduled via the canal since mid-September, Cosco will make its first westbound voyage through the Suez in more than two years with the 24,200 teu OOCL Spain on the AEU1/LL1 service on 4 October,” Linerlytica wrote this week.

The service, part of the Ocean Alliance’s Asia-North Europe network, is known as the NEU1, and FAL5 to CMA CGM customers.

Linerlytica also noted that last week had “marked the busiest week for containership transits through the Suez Canal since 2024, as 30 ships of over 4,000 teu passed through”.

The analyst calculates that since May, a total of 140 boxships have made the “structural switch” from Cape of Good Hope routings to Suez, equivalent to just over 2m teu in capacity.

Part of the renewed confidence in returning to Suez routes may be to do with the letter the Houthi rebels reportedly sent to the EU, in which they promised not to attack European cargo ships.

According to a UK Financial Times report at the weekend, during the September Houthi offensive along the Yemen coast, during which it captured the port of Mocha, the rebel commanders sent the communique to the EU’s diplomatic service on 10 September.

Subscribe for Daily Maritime Insights

Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update

— trusted by our 107,139 members