Evergreen Joins the Return to Red Sea Shipping

By The Maritime Executive 2026-11-08 22:48:46

Taiwanese carrier Evergreen has returned to the Red Sea route after a three-year absence, a sign that the industry is increasingly confident in the security situation off the coast of war-torn Yemen. 

On Saturday, the boxship Ever Eon became the first Evergreen vessel to transit the Suez Canal in years, according to the canal authority. SCA Chairman Ossama Rabiee welcomed the vessel on her eastbound journey from the Netherlands to Singapore, and he had the administration's senior pilots present the ship's master with a commemorative gift.

Ever Eon is a 16,500 TEU ULCV built just last year, and she operates on the Ocean Alliance NEU 7 service, a string on the core Asia-Northern Europe trade lane. Her transit is the first Red Sea run in years for Evergreen, but not the last: the line plans to resume service through Suez with more voyages, Rabiee said. 

The addition of Evergreen adds to the expanding number of the world's boxship operators who have come back to the Red Sea. CMA CGM sustained service in the Red Sea for much of the crisis period. Maersk, MSC, Hapag Lloyd and COSCO have all returned at this point, reducing tonne-miles, fuel burn and time in transit for Asia-Europe shipments (when compared with the Cape of Good Hope route). 

The route still entails risk for vessels with a specific profile: the Houthis have declared an "embargo" on Saudi seaports, and are engaged in active cross-border hostilities with Saudi forces. Saudi-linked vessels have been attacked in the southern Red Sea in recent months, and could be again. 

The Houthis' antipathy towards Israel is also well-known, and could manifest itself in the form of further strikes on Israeli-linked tonnage. Israeli-owned container carrier Zim has stayed out of the Red Sea, and most traffic at the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat has been rerouted to Israel's Mediterranean ports. In 2024, Eilat welcomed 16 ships in total, barely more than one per month. The drop in traffic is severe enough that the Port of Eilat's operators say that the facility has become unprofitable, and after three years of disruption, its fate is unclear.