French ocean freight carrier CMA CGM have made a u-turn this week on their plans to route one of their service loops through the Red Sea route.

The service in question travels from the Indian Sub-continent to the US East Coast and currently takes the longer journey around the Cape Of Good Hope. While it doesn’t touch any European ports, the plan to travel through the conflict area was undoubtedly being monitored closely by Asia/European carriers.

At the beginning of this month, the steamship line unveiled a new schedule that confirmed the service, which runs nine vessels between 9,000 and 10,000 TEU, would begin travelling through The Red Sea, with the first vessel departing on 13th November.

However, it has now made a u-turn on that decision, which we understand is due to pressure from customers. While CMA CGM’s clients would probably welcome the shorter transit times, it has been suggested that they were unable to get cargo insurance cover for the high risk route.

CMA CGM is already operating its BEX2 service through the danger zone, but this loop carries containers to and from Lebanon, and is therefore not targeted by Houthi rebel attacks.

So, we remain none the wiser about the chances of Asia shipping returning back to normal.

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