The container ship Umm Qarn sailed from Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia, on Oct. 27 as the first vessel on Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd's AE12 service to cross the Suez Canal, according to a Maersk customer advisory. The switch makes AE12 the sixth loop in the two carriers' Gemini network to use the Red Sea, and it lands as Egypt tries to rebuild canal income that remains below half of its pre-crisis level.

For exporters in China and Southeast Asia, each loop that leaves the Cape of Good Hope detour shortens the trip to Mediterranean ports and frees ships for other trades. AE12 calls at Ningbo, Shanghai and Tanjung Pelepas before heading through the canal to Algeciras in Spain, Koper in Slovenia and Rijeka in Croatia, then returns via Suez to Singapore. Maersk said the Umm Qarn will make its first eastbound canal crossing after leaving Algeciras on Dec. 5.

Gemini moves loop by loop

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd announced on Sept. 14 that four Gemini services, AE5, AE11, AE12 and ME2, would move to the trans-Suez route, joining AE15 and AE19, which had already switched. The AE5 loop links Qingdao, Ningbo and Tanjung Pelepas with London, Bremerhaven, Hamburg and Rotterdam. AE11 serves Shanghai and Yantian to Tangier, Valencia, Barcelona and Genoa, and ME2 connects Ennore in India and Colombo with northern Europe.

AE11 and AE5 led the way, with westbound ships leaving Tanjung Pelepas on Sept. 19 and Sept. 21. The ME2's first eastbound Suez sailing was scheduled to leave Tangier on Oct. 31. Maersk said further changes depend on the Red Sea staying stable and on no new escalation in the region. When AE15 switched in July, the carriers said they were ready to send it back around Africa if conditions worsened, Container News reported.

Juan Pablo Richards, Hapag-Lloyd's regional head for Southern Europe, told the Suez Canal Authority at a meeting in Ismailia on Oct. 21 that more of the line's services are expected to come back to the canal, and that the line is watching Red Sea safety indicators before adjusting schedules, according to a statement from the authority. In a later video call with canal chairman Osama Rabie, Rolf Habben Jansen, Hapag-Lloyd's chief executive, said three of the line's services had resumed canal transits and that the waterway would remain attractive "as long as conditions allow," the Egyptian Gazette reported on Oct. 30.

Suez Canal revenue still well short of its peak

For Egypt, the stakes are large. Canal revenue rose 23% to $4.67 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June 2026, Rabie said in a June 28 television interview, Egyptian Streets reported. That is still less than half the record of more than $9 billion a year the canal earned before the Red Sea attacks, and up from under $4 billion in 2024.

At the Ismailia meeting, Rabie described the canal as ready to receive every kind of shipping service and said he hoped all of Hapag-Lloyd's services would return.

The money matters for Egypt's foreign currency position. Canal tolls are one of the country's main sources of dollars, and the pound has been under pressure: the central bank raised its key rate to 20% in a surprise move as the currency neared 56 to the dollar.

How much traffic has come back

The shift is real but partial. Weekly container capacity through the canal averaged 753,000 twenty-foot equivalent units in the first two weeks of October, according to Clarksons Research data cited by shipping association BIMCO, compared with about 1.46 million in the same weeks of 2023. That is the first time transits have topped half of pre-disruption levels. About 36% of container capacity on the competing Suez and Cape routes used the canal in that period, up from an average of 8% between 2024 and mid-2026 but well below the 80% recorded before the attacks on shipping began.

Rabie, for his part, has pitched the canal as the most viable route given rising fuel costs, the Egyptian Gazette reported.

The next test is Dec. 5, when the Umm Qarn is due to leave Algeciras on AE12's first eastbound Suez voyage, along with whatever traffic and revenue figures the canal authority releases for the final months of the year.