November 13th, 2025 – Officials from Egypt and leading global shipping lines have held discussions aimed at restoring global shipping traffic to the Suez Canal, a vital trade route that has suffered from months of disruption due to regional instability.
Ossama Rabiee, chairman of Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA), recently met with representatives from 20 major shipping lines and agencies to review developments in the Red Sea and assess their impact on global maritime trade. The summit, held at the authority’s headquarters and attended by several members of the board of directors, was part of the agency’s ongoing consultations with industry stakeholders regarding sailing plans and route schedules.
The talks came in the wake of Yemen’s Houthi militia announcing a halt to attacks on Red Sea shipping following the Gaza ceasefire. For Egypt, the timing is crucial. Since late 2023, Houthi attacks on merchant vessels forced the world’s largest cargo carriers to divert ships away from the Suez Canal, sending them instead on longer, costlier voyages around Africa. These reroutings severely undercut canal revenues, which fell by as much as 60% in 2024 to between $4.2 and $4.25 billion, down sharply from the record $10.25 billion achieved the previous year.
Despite these setbacks, the SCA recorded a rebound early this year, with first-quarter revenue reaching $899 million — a 16% improvement compared to the same period in 2023. Still, the steep losses raised concerns that Egypt’s government could be forced to cut spending, a troubling prospect given the broader instability across the Middle East. In response, the authority introduced a 15% toll discount for large container ships to attract carriers back to the canal.
While ocean carriers initially benefited financially from rerouted voyages around the Cape of Good Hope, global trade has since softened amid shifting tariffs and market uncertainty, cutting into those early profits. Meanwhile, Suez Canal traffic has shown steady signs of recovery. Between July and October, 4,405 vessels carrying a combined 185 million tons passed through the canal, compared with 4,332 vessels and 167.6 million tons during the same period a year earlier.
Rabiee credited the October ceasefire talks in Gaza for helping to stabilize the situation, noting that October saw 229 vessels return to the canal — the highest monthly total since the beginning of the crisis. The Suez Canal also recently welcomed the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, a 17,859-TEU vessel and the largest to navigate the waterway in two years, alongside its sister ship CMA CGM Zheng He. The French shipping company has been one of the few major carriers to maintain a presence in the Red Sea throughout the conflict.
At the summit, CMA CGM’s Egyptian leadership expressed confidence that traffic through the canal would continue to increase in the coming quarter as new vessels are added to the company’s fleet. Rabiee encouraged shipping agents to continue reassuring their clients about the canal’s safety and to advocate for the resumption of regular transits.
Representatives from Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), the world’s largest container line, signaled optimism for a swift return of southbound traffic as regional stability improves, although the company has continued routing vessels via the Cape of Good Hope for now to ensure safety and operational predictability. British shipbroker Clarkson urged the authority to consider incentive programs linked to vessel numbers and tonnage to further boost traffic, forecasting a strong recovery in canal activity in the new year.
Other global players are also reaffirming their interest in Egypt. Maersk Group’s chairman met with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in October to confirm ongoing investment commitments, while Taiwan’s Evergreen Line indicated readiness to resume canal transits once regional conditions stabilize. Cosco Shipping representatives noted that evolving global trade patterns — including declining freight rates and shifts in supply-demand dynamics — are likely to accelerate the return of vessels to the Suez route.
With security in the Red Sea slowly improving and global shipping lines reassessing their strategies, Egypt’s Suez Canal appears poised for a gradual but determined comeback as one of the world’s most critical maritime arteries.
