Big ships are coming back to the Suez Canal
The canal says 166 large container ships crossed between July and September, against 16 in the same months last year.
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Ismailia — Large container ships are returning to the Suez Canal in numbers. Between July and September this year, 166 medium and large container vessels crossed the canal, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, has said. In the same three months last year the figure was 16.
Those 166 ships, each of more than 130,000 tons, had a combined net tonnage of 29 million tons, against 2.4 million tons a year earlier, Daily News Egypt reports.
One company's return
Mr Rabie gave the figures on Tuesday in a video meeting with the French shipping group CMA CGM.
The group's executive vice-president for assets and operations, Christine Cabau, said the company was continuing to bring its services back to the canal, which it regards as a lasting route. The two sides reviewed the company's sailing plans and called on other shipping lines to return to the canal in full.
On the same day one of the group's giant ships, the CMA CGM Pantheon, made its first passage through the canal. With a net canal tonnage of 221,000 tons, it sailed north in a convoy on a voyage between Morocco and Malaysia. A second ship from the same line, the CMA CGM Monte Cristi, was in the convoy.
What the canal is offering
Mr Rabie said higher fuel prices and freight rates were adding pressure to supply chains around the world. The authority plans to offer shipping and logistics packages to keep the canal the fastest, shortest and most efficient route, he said.
He added that the canal can handle the world's entire fleet of container ships.
Source: Daily News Egypt, 14 October 2026.
