Santa Catarina Maersk—Source: Port of Hamburg
Maersk Line has sent its ships through the Red Sea after a three-month absence, as tonnage availability remains low amid rocketing charter rates.
Container shipping consultancy Linerlytica said today that the 7,154 TEU Santa Catarina Maersk (ex Santa Catarina) and 8,648 TEU Clementine Maersk are the Danish operator’s first ships to transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait since 1 March.
Santa Catarina, which came with the Maersk group’s acquisition of Hamburg Sud in 2018, made a positioning trip from China to the Mediterranean and made its Suez passage on 4 June. On 13 June, Clementine Maersk made the westbound Suez Canal passage, while on its way from Salalah to New York on Maersk Line’s Middle East-India to East Coast US (MECL) service.
In December 2025, Maersk Line had announced that the MECL service would return to the Suez route but reversed its decision when the US-Israel conflict against Iran broke out on 28 February.
The Danish operator also operates two other southbound services through the Suez Canal, the Asia-Mediterranean-Red Sea Se4/AE19 and the Mediterranean-Red Sea JD1, but they turn around at Jeddah without passing the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Both of these services are operated with Hapag-Lloyd as part of Gemini Cooperation’s network.
Maersk Line is not the only mainline operator to resume Suez Canal transits, noted Linerlytica.
Linerlytica said: “The tight market has prompted CMA CGM, which is planning additional ad hoc Suez passages, to send more ships to the Suez route, in addition to the five services that are on regular Suez transits. With container ships in short supply and charter rates remaining elevated, some carriers may be tempted to resume Red Sea transits.”
Linerlytica added that Maersk is short of vessels, after redelivering 10,100 TEU Seaspan Granville to Seaspan Corporation last week, with another ship, 10,100 TEU Seaspan Guatemala, to follow this week. Seaspan has chartered both ships to COSCO Shipping Lines on private terms.
