Red Sea shipping traffic growing but box bosses still weighing up a big bang return
- Houthis signal their campaign of attacks had stopped, for now, but security concerns remain
- Lloyd’s List Intelligence analysis confirms 8% increase in traffic compared to 2024, but 56% less than 2023
- Maersk affirms it wants to be the first line to return to the Red Sea, but it will not be running test services
Yemen’s Houthis have signalled a halt to their attacks on ships, and shipowners appear to be responding with a five-month uptick in vessels transiting the Bab el Mandeb. But an end to more than two years of disruption to global maritime trade is realistically only going to end once the major lines return, potentially en masse
