The Suez Canal Authority is pulling out all the stops to lure traffic back to the global trade artery.
In an advisory listed Tuesday, the canal operator said it would grant a 15 percent rebate for all container ships that opt to transit the waterway if they have a net tonnage of 130,000 metric tons or above.
The rebates would begin to go into effect Thursday and would last 90 days.
Container ships have largely avoided the Suez Canal since late 2023 after Houthi militants in Yemen began attacking commercial vessels with missiles and drones near the chokepoint.
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Ships sailing through the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden have all been targeted in that time frame, forcing ocean carriers like Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to instead divert their fleets south around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
The authority said it made the decision at the request of container ships’ owners and operators, and “in light of the current positive developments in the security situation” in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The positive developments refer to President Donald Trump’s announcement that a ceasefire deal was made between the U.S. and the Houthis. Under this truce, the U.S. would stop hitting the Iran-aligned group with airstrikes in Yemeni territory, while the Houthis would stop attacking U.S. ships in the Red Sea.
But the deal itself and potential terms are unclear, and haven’t brought any certainty as to whether international ships in the waterway are exempt from Houthi attacks, or whether the onslaught will resume since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza lingers.
Egypt has plenty of financial incentive to coax more shipping companies into making a Red Sea return. In 2024, the Suez Canal saw $7 billion in losses due to the lack of traffic passing through.
Admiral Ossama Rabiee, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, has championed the promise of a more stable canal since February, holding various meetings with shipping and maritime executives in the months since in an effort to get more carriers to return.
The Houthis haven’t attacked a container ship thus far in 2025, and the short-lived ceasefire between Israel and Hamas earlier this year had given way to the possibility that safety concerns would fade away.
But by and large, most container shipping companies have not taken the bait, especially given the resumption of the hostilities in Gaza in March. And while the Houthis haven’t hit any ships, they are still fighting an adjacent battle against Israel, and have refused to agree to stop attacking Israeli-affiliated vessels.
Maersk has been the posterchild for staying noncommittal on a Red Sea return, with CEO Vincent Clerc saying in a Thursday earnings call that the company sees the situation lasting through 2025.
“Given what we’re seeing every day…going through something as complex, costly and hard-to-reverse as a complete redeployment of our shipping networks to go back through the Red Sea, based on a news of a deal whose contour we don’t understand—I think that is not responsible,” Clerc said. “We’re pretty far from that threshold.”
CMA CGM escalates Suez Canal presence
The one major global container shipping line that has periodically made returns to the Red Sea is France-based CMA CGM, as the company has had select voyages escorted through the waterway by the French Navy.
Last Wednesday, the authority noted in a news statement that CMA CGM ranked first in terms of net tonnage of container vessels transiting the canal during the first four months of 2025, representing 19 percent of tonnage during that period.
In the first quarter, 486 container ships sailed through the Suez Canal, totaling 17,234 metric tons.
During the meeting held that day, Christine Cabeau, CMA CGM’s executive vice president of assets and operations, said the group already has a fixed service that transits through the canal. The group wants to operate an additional service, Cabeau said.
“On her part, Cabeau expressed her happiness with the positive developments in the security situation in the Red Sea region, which will be taken into consideration when the group assesses the situation in the region and prepares navigation schedules, taking into account maritime safety considerations for vessels and crews, as well as developments,” the Suez Canal Authority said in the statement. The EVP “affirmed the group’s keenness to return to transiting through the Suez Canal, considering it the shortest and fastest route compared to the Cape of Good Hope.”
