Seatrade-Maritime: Gemini brings four services back to Red Sea – Suez route

Published by Seatrade-Maritime

Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have announced a further four ocean services will resume transits via the Bab El Mandeb and Suez Canal route.

In a joint announcement today, the carriers confirmed that the AE5, AE11, AE12 and ME2 services to North Europe and the Mediterranean destinations would resume Suez Canal sailings as mounting congestion in both Asia and European ports persists.

“By transitioning the AE5, AE11, AE12 and ME2 services to the trans-Suez corridor instead of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, we will offer more efficient transit times for customers,” Maersk said in a customer advisory.

The four services add to the AE15 and AE19 that were already transiting via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. The AE15 made its maiden call at DP World’s Jeddah South Container Terminal with the 19,000 teu Morten Maersk.

The two carriers confirmed that they would continue to monitor the security situation in the region, following military advances by the Iran-backed Houthi Movement westwards up to the shore of the Bab El Mandeb strait over the past week.

Maersk, however, added: “Any alteration to services within the Gemini Cooperation will remain dependent on the ongoing stability in the Red Sea area and the absence of any escalation in conflicts in the region.”

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have been contacted for comment.