Our global freight forwarding network keeps our customers freight moving across the world.

Cosco returns to Red Sea sailings, despite threats from Houthis

Bookings are back on for Cosco Red Sea services, the Chinese carrier set to operate a Far East-Red Sea rotation that will see vessels cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, despite Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group the Houthis attacking ships in the strait. The decision by Cosco to commence Red Sea sailings continues what Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen described as "the slow normalisation of the Suez-route", on the back of CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, and Maersk all adding capacity to the routing. Linerlytica's Monday Market Pulse noted: "Traffic on Bab el Mandeb continues to increase, with CMA CGM and Maersk pushing three more services back to the Suez route as they continue to defy the threat of Houthi attacks. "These moves are aimed at combating the shortage of vessels and container equipment made worse by protracted port congestion across North Asia and Europe," it added, noting Cosco already had more than 20 ships of 2,700-3,600 teu deployed on Mediterranean/Red Sea routes. And with yet another storm battering North Asia, Typhoon Dolphin, capacity is only expected to tighten, with more than 2.4m teu already stranded by the shutdown of port operations at Ningbo and Shanghai between 7 and 8 August, and the spread of congestion to Southern China. Best guess forecasts appear to indicate that clearing the backlog of vessels will take weeks, but given that Typhoon Dolphin is the third and strongest tropical storm to hit the region, seeing more than a million people evacuated, it could take longer. Sources told The Loadstar the decision to route through the Red Sea, particularly given renewed Houthi threats to strike commercial shipping in response to the US/Israeli war against Iran, was "risky". Acknowledging that the Houthis remain "the wildcard", Mr Jensen said: "It appears clear for now their embargo on Saudi shipping is focused on the oil tanker business," offering something of a respite for box ships that have largely been shut out of the waterway for three years. Meanwhile, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have upped their game, with their Gemini AE19/SE4 Asia-Mediterranean service switching to a Red Sea routing, joining the AE15/SE3, which switched in July. "This gradual normalisation is in addition to CMA CGM which already operates quite a few vessels on multiple services using the Suez routing, and Cosco/OOCL which will now begin a Far East-Red Sea service also crossing Bab el-Mandeb," Mr Jensen noted. "The CMA CGM services with some, or all, vessels operated on Asia-Europe via Suez are EPIC, FAL-1, FAL-3, OCR, MEDEX, MEX and BEX2, some of which are also Ocean Alliance services."

Demand the driver as carriers prepare for Q4 capacity management

European container demand could weaken in the fourth quarter, as a significant share of this year's peak season cargo appears to have been brought forward. According to Italian container logistics provider Sogese's August Europe Container Market Update, demand rather than vessel capacity will be the key variable for the remainder of 2026, with carriers continuing to manage supply carefully, despite fleet growth. "Peak season used to test how much capacity a business could secure. Today it tests how consistently it can execute. The companies that perform best this year will not necessarily move more containers. They will make fewer planning revisions, position inventory earlier, and sustain operational discipline for longer," said Andrea Monti, CEO and MD, Sogese. The warning comes as global schedule reliability deteriorates. Recent Sea-Intelligence data showed reliability falling to 62.6% in June from 64.5% in May, with vessels arriving an average 5.3 days behind schedule. Maersk was the most reliable of the top 13 carriers, at 77.1%, followed by Hapag-Lloyd at 75.6%, and MSC at 72.1%., Meanwhile, freight rates have begun to soften, according to Drewry's World Container Index. The WCI reached $4,639 per 40ft on 9 July before falling 3%, to $4,255 by 30 July. Sogese says the simultaneous decline in rates and schedule reliability suggests demand is retreating faster than carriers are reducing capacity. The company estimated that close to 20% of nominal global fleet capacity is effectively unavailable, with Cape of Good Hope diversions alone absorbing about 2.5m teu and adding one to two weeks to transit times. Sogese also pointed to evidence of earlier-than-usual peak demand, with Rotterdam's deepsea container volumes rising 5.2% in the first half, including an 8% increase in imports from Asia, while overall container throughput remained broadly flat. Sogese's base case is for demand normalisation in Q4, with inventories rebalancing, freight rates correcting further, and effective capacity increasing. Carriers are expected to manage the adjustment through blanked sailings and network changes rather than a sharp correction. "The real question is not whether disruption continues. It is how the market behaves once this peak unwinds. "Carrier discipline and inventory levels will decide whether today's balance holds or a new phase of volatility begins, and businesses that plan for both outcomes will be better placed than those betting on a single scenario," said Mr Monti.

Gavrilin joins Air One as business development director

Air One has appointed Ilya Gavrilin as business development director for the Asia Pacific region to drive scheduled and charter freighter growth. In his new role, Gavrilin will lead commercial growth, strengthen client partnerships, and support network expansion in the Asia Pacific region for the firm's managed freighter fleet of 11 Boeing 747-400Fs and two Boeing 777Fs. He is based at Air One's regional headquarters in Hong Kong. The new role comes after the airline launched scheduled 747 operations from Hong Kong to the UK's East Midlands Airport in September of last year, after previously providing charter flights from the region. Gavrilin joins from his former role as vice president of Eures Express in Hong Kong. Previoulsy, he spent moer than 12 years with Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Volga-Dnepr Group in commercial roles in Europe and Asia Pacific, setting up the Group's presence in Hong Kong and, ultimately, serving as deputy commercial director for Boeing 747 charters, and as head of integrated logistics services (ILS). The company said that throughout his career, Gavrilin has built an "impressive track record", from "securing major charter cargo agreements and exceeding revenue targets during some of the industry's most challenging market conditions, to launching new business verticals". Air One chairman Guneet Mirchandani said: "As a seasoned commercial leader with over 15 years of experience and deep expertise across major Asia Pacific markets, Ilya will help to drive our expansion across the region. "His focus is to build on our well-established presence as a leading provider of freighter capacity, and to leverage our scheduled and charter capabilities to open new business opportunities for our clients as well as for AIR ONE and our partners." Over the past five years, Air One has operated more than 2,843 Boeing freighter flights connecting the region with major cargo markets in Europe and beyond, of which 1,874 originated from Hong Kong.