Suez Canal recovery raises hopes for trade on reduced freight and faster transit

After three years of diversions around the Cape of Good Hope, Suez Canal is seeing a recovery to more than half of pre-disruption levels and this has raised hopes for trade. Container-ship tonnage transiting the Suez Canal during January–August 2026 was 54.2 per cent higher than a year earlier, according to the Suez Canal Authority. During the first two weeks of October, weekly container ship capacity transiting the Suez Canal averaged 753,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), as against 1.457 million TEU in the corresponding period in 2023, according to Clarksons Research. This is the first time since Houthi attacks that…