Maersk Targets Full Suez Canal Return by March 2027

Maersk expects every one of its shipping services to return to the Suez Canal by March 2027, according to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), signaling a major milestone in the normalization of Asia–Europe container routing after years of Cape of Good Hope diversions.

The timeline emerged from a video meeting between SCA Chairman Adm. Ossama Rabiee and senior Maersk executives, including Chief Operating Officer Rabab Boulos. According to the SCA, Boulos said she expects all Maersk shipping services to resume transits through the canal by March next year.

The date remains an expectation rather than a confirmed schedule. Neither the authority nor the carrier has published a service-by-service roadmap, and the SCA announcement did not identify which additional strings would shift back or set dates for individual route changes.

How fast is Maersk already coming back?

The numbers point to a sharp acceleration. Between January and September 2026, 276 Maersk-affiliated vessels transited the Suez Canal, against 146 in the same period of 2025 — an increase of roughly 89% year on year.

Net tonnage tells an even stronger story. The combined tonnage of those transits reached 23.3 million tons, up from just 7 million tons a year earlier. That is more than a threefold increase, indicating that the vessels returning are not only more numerous but substantially larger, consistent with big container ships being brought back onto the short route.

For shippers, the shift matters commercially. Rabiee highlighted the cost advantages of the Suez routing compared with sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, particularly for large container vessels. A Cape diversion adds thousands of nautical miles and roughly ten days of steaming on Asia–Europe legs, inflating bunker consumption and effective capacity requirements — costs that ultimately feed into freight rates.

What changes for schedules and networks?

Ahmed Hassan, Vice President of Operations at Maersk, confirmed during the meeting that the company continues to update its sailing schedules. Those adjustments are expected to allow more Maersk services to transit the canal in the coming months.

Hani El-Nady, Maersk's representative for the Middle East and North Africa, indicated the group is working to accelerate the return of its services. Both sides agreed to continue discussions on future cooperation as Maersk reviews its navigation plans.

For forwarders and BCOs, the practical consequence is a progressive tightening of transit times on affected lanes as more strings revert to Suez routing, alongside gradual release of the excess vessel capacity that Cape diversions tied up. Carriers competing on the same corridors will face similar pressures to rebalance networks.

The pace of the return, however, still hinges on Maersk's own schedule reviews rather than any fixed commitment — meaning the March 2027 target should be read as a trajectory, with individual service announcements likely to surface service by service in the coming months.