Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd to Reroute Joint Shipping Service via Red Sea

Shipping companies A.P. Moller Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have changed the route of one of their shared services under the Gemini Cooperation to transit the Red Sea and Suez Canal area, according to Maersk in an advisory to customers on Tuesday.

From mid-February the ME11 service, which connects India, the Middle East with the Mediterranean, will start using the Red Sea route, after the it was made secure with naval assistance.

“The highest possible security precautions will be undertaken, as the safety of the crew, the vessels, and the customers’ cargo remains the highest priority of both carriers. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will continue to monitor the security situation in the Middle East region very closely, and any alteration to the Gemini service will remain dependent on the ongoing stability in the Red Sea area and the absence of any escalation in conflicts in the region,” Maersk said in the advisory note.

The Gemini Cooperation started in February last year and has a pool of around 340 vessels that are part of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s shared interconnected ocean network. The cooperation’s network covers 29 shared mainliner and 29 shared shuttle services on East-West trade routes.

The safe trial voyage of French shipping company CMA CGM’s vessel Benjamin Franklin through the Red Sea and Suez Canal in November 2025 was viewed as positive for vessels to resume transiting the Suez Canal.

Several shipping companies have avoided the Red Sea and Suez Canal for the past two years after Yemeni rebel Houthi attacks on commercial ships.

Companies have been redirected their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa — a longer and more expensive voyage — to avoid potential attacks.

Reporting by Stacy Maphula, smaphula@opisnet.com; Editing by Rob Sheridan, rsheridan@opisnet.com