Transits by container ships through the Suez Canal ticked closer to a low for all of 2025 even as global carriers mulled a return to the Mideast trade route.
The final week of November saw the second-lowest number of boxship transits through the waterway this year, said Xeneta Chief Analyst Peter Sand, a total of 28 containerships compared to 30 the previous week and 25 for the week of Sept. 15-21.
“July had the lowest monthly number of transits, 146, marking a change of direction in the trend,” Sand said on LinkedIn, quoting data from shipping agency Leth in Egypt. “An average 4.7 containerships were transiting the Suez Canal on a daily basis in July. Since then a slow-burning increase is identified, reaching 5.0 in October, before going down to 4.9 in November.”
Most major carriers since 2023 diverted away from the Suez/Red Sea route linking Asia to the Mediterranean, Europe and North America and around the tip of Africa. But the ceasefire in Gaza has buoyed hopes for a return after Houthi militia in Yemen sympathetic to Hamas said they would pause attacks on merchant shipping.
Steamship lines have seen profits slip on higher operating expenses for the longer voyages and falling rates on headhaul routes from Asia to the United States.
“On average 34.5 containerships were transiting the Suez Canal in weeks 36 through 48, a period of significant volatility,” Sand said. “Seeing a highpoint by mid-November (week 46) where 43 transits took place and a low point in week 38 at just 25 container ships.”
Sand pointed to data from Seasearcher for the previous week that showed 39 transits through the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern end of the Red Sea near the Gulf of Aden, to the Port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
But Sand said the increases weren’t enough to prevent the United Nations Trade & Development (UNCTAD) port liner shipping connectivity index to drop from 557.57 in Q4-2023 to 413.52 in Q3-2025.
The Suez Canal has seen a 20% increase in daily transits of all other vessels in the past six months, said Sand, from 28.3 in June to 33.9 in November.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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