Evergreen's Ever Eon transited the Suez Canal, marking a significant return for the company and potential earlier arrivals for Europe-bound cargo.
On 8 November, Evergreen Marine's 16,556-TEU containership Ever Eon transited the Suez Canal northbound as part of a convoy travelling from the Netherlands to Singapore. The Suez Canal Authority confirmed the transit in an official announcement, with Chairman Rabiee present to receive the vessel. This passage marks the first Evergreen ship to use the Suez Canal since January 2024—a gap of nearly three years.
According to communications from the Suez Canal Authority, the liner companies that have resumed Suez transits now include CMA CGM, Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd, and COSCO. Evergreen is the last member of the Ocean Alliance to restore canal passage, with its alliance partners having done so previously. This move is not a single-vessel trial. Citing a schedule compiled by Linerlytica, The Loadstar reports that in addition to Ever Eon, the Ever Edit is scheduled for an eastbound NEU7/CES sailing on 11 November, while the 20,124-TEU Ever Gifted is set for the MD2 service on 16 November. Ever Eon had originally been scheduled to transit on 7 November; the actual crossing took place one day later.
For freight forwarders serving the Middle East and Red Sea trades, a more immediate operational change takes effect on 12 November. According to Linerlytica's schedule, Evergreen plans to restart its China-Red Sea OGRD service on that date, with the 7,024-TEU Ever Superb as the inaugural vessel, departing from Qingdao. The port rotation covers Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Jeddah, Sokhna, Aqaba, Jeddah, Port Klang, and back to Qingdao, with a full round-trip cycle of 56 days. The initial deployment comprises four vessels in the 7,000-9,000-TEU range, operating on a fortnightly frequency. A critical change is the reinstatement of Jeddah, Sokhna, and Aqaba as direct port calls. For the past three years, cargo moving from China to Red Sea ports has required transshipment via Singapore or Jebel Ali—adding an additional handling operation, an extra point of cargo risk, and several additional days of transit time. The resumption of direct calls eliminates that intermediate leg.
Industry sources indicate that vessels rerouting via Suez may arrive at their destinations up to two weeks ahead of ships still rounding the Cape of Good Hope, with the possibility of two separate vessel clusters arriving at European ports within the same month. Practitioners are advised to incorporate that differential into delivery scheduling and to use real-time vessel tracking to confirm the actual routing for each individual shipment. For freight forwarders, this translates into a direct operational consideration: when a customer asks for a transit time estimate, the answer that applied under Cape routing for the past three years may no longer hold. Within the same carrier, on the same service, consecutive sailings may now take different routes—one through the canal, one still rounding the Cape—producing arrival variances that will directly affect delivery commitments if not accounted for at the time of booking.
The number of vessels in service remains unchanged, but shorter voyage times allow each ship to complete one to two additional round trips per year, releasing effective capacity into the market. Industry analysts assess this dynamic as unfavorable for Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean freight rates; the rate increase introduced on 1 November failed to hold, and further softening is anticipated in the weeks ahead. Carriers are simultaneously increasing Red Sea port calls to compete for Shanghai-Persian Gulf rates, which continue to firm. ZIM currently maintains Cape routing for its vessels. Linerlytica projects that by the first quarter of 2027, the three major alliances alongside MSC will have fully returned to Suez, potentially leaving ZIM as the only major liner operator still routing via the Cape. Evergreen, Maersk, and Hapag-Lloyd have each communicated a consistent position: future routing decisions will depend on Red Sea security conditions, and individual sailings may revert to Cape routing if circumstances require. The present situation, therefore, is not one of restored stability but of a scheduling environment entering a period of elevated adjustment frequency. The routing applied to a given port this month may differ from that applied next month, and each booking warrants individual confirmation of the actual service path.
