The global logistics industry’s long-awaited return to the Suez Canal may be in jeopardy, gCaptain has reported.
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) ended 2025 working hard to bring container shipping back to the Red Sea shipping route, which drives traffic through the canal. French shipping line CMA CGM was among the first to bring mega-container ships back to the Red Sea crossing in November, and at the time, SCA Chairman Ossama Rabiee emphasized the canal’s “significance [to global container logistics] as the shortest, fastest, and most secure waterway” to transit the Bab el-Mandab Strait.
Recent events, however, are threatening the security of the transit, and CMA CGM has stopped using the canal again.
Political unrest in Iran, which prompted a violent government crackdown that may have left more than 20,000 people dead, has spurred strong reactions from both the U.S. and Israel, as well as a growing U.S. military presence in the area.
In response, Houthi militants have issued several warnings to the shipping industry. One, a video which featured footage of previous attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, had the caption “soon.”
“Multiple pro-Houthi figures shared the video claiming they would stand alongside Iran in the face of a U.S. and/or Israeli attack,” EOS Risk Group Head of Advisory Mark Kelly said, per gCaptain.
Another video featured Houthi spokesman Brigadier Yahya Saree affirming that his organization would support Islamic countries that were, as he put it, “exposed to Zionist aggression.”
Major logistics provider Maersk, which had announced its return to the Suez Canal as recently as 15 January, has not, as of reporting, changed its plans.
