Sea Legend will discontinue its China-Europe Arctic Express (CAX) service after only a single sailing. The 4,890 teu ISTANBUL BRIDGE completed its maiden westbound CAX voyage at Felixstowe on 14 October 2025 after departing from Ningbo on 23 September 2025, completing the Arctic Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 21 days. After additional calls at Hamburg, Gdansk and Rotterdam, the ship will return via the Suez route, forgoing the Arctic route on its return leg. No further CAX sailings are planned, wi
SeaLead will replace its standalone Five Seas Express (5CX) service with a new Far East-Mediterranean service via the Suez Canal in cooperation with CU Lines (CUL) and Global Feeder Services (GFS) from the end of October 2025. The former 5CX service has been disrupted since August 2025 after 16 SeaLead operated ships were added to the OFAC sanctions list, affecting 8 ships of 5,000 teu to 6,800 teu that were formerly operated on the service. The new service operated by CUL, GFS and SeaLead wil
CMA CGM will add a new direct call at Cai Mep on the Asia-Med MEX1 service, which is operated within the Ocean Alliance MED2 service that is branded as the AEM2 by COSCO, WM2 by OOCL and MEX1 by Evergreen. The new rotation will call at Qingdao, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Nansha, Shekou, Singapore, Valencia, Barcelona, Fos, Marsaxlokk, Port Klang, Qingdao with the first call at Cai Mep scheduled on 27 October 2025 on the 16,022 teu CMA CGM JULES VERNE. The service will retain a 14 week turn
Zim will add new calls at Valencia, Barcelona, Genoa and Port Said on its Zim Mediterranean Premium (ZMP) service after Israeli-linked ships were barred from Turkish ports since 22 August 2025. The first call at Port Said was made on 2 September 2025 while the first call at Valencia will be made on 17 October 2025. Ad-hoc calls at Malaga were already added on the service since 23 August to replace the former calls at the Turkish ports of Mersin, Aliaga, Derince and Ambarli. The revised ZMP serv
Premier Alliance carriers (HMM, ONE and Yang Ming) will split its current Mediterranean Pacific South 2 (MS2) into 2 separate services covering the Asia-Med Mediterranean 2 (MD2) service and the Middle East Gulf-US Gulf Pacific South 2 (GS2) service. The move will allow ONE to remove 10 China built ships currently deployed on the MS2 service from the US with the planned USTR port fee scheduled to take effect from October 2025. The current MS2 service deploys up to 21 ships of 13,000-15,000 teu
Wan Hai will return to the Asia-Med trade with the launch of the new Far East-Mediterranean 1 (FM1) service calling at Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Shekou, Port Klang, Jeddah, Aqaba, Sokhna, Alexandria, Izmit, Ambarli, Shanghai from 12 September 2025. The FM1 service will turn in 10 weeks using ships of 4,300 teu to 5,000 teu starting with the 4,680 teu WAN HAI 513 at Shanghai on 12 September. The service features an extension of Wan Hai's Asia-Red Sea 2 (AR2) extra loader service that was launched
CMA CGM has upgraded the capacity of the ships deployed on its Asia-Med Phoenician Express (BEX2) service from the 8,500-11,500 teu scale to larger ships of 13,100-15,500 teu. The 13,136 teu CMA CGM COBALT was the first of the upsized ships to join the service on 26 March 2025, and has been followed by the larger 15,536 teu CMA CGM OSIRIS on 2 May 2025. The BEX2 service is the largest service on the Suez Canal, and the use of the larger ships will allow CMA CGM to enjoy the 15% discount on tran
MSC has cancelled the launch of its new Asia-Med Phoenix service that was originally scheduled to start at the end of February 2025 but have been repeatedly delayed before the service was finally withdrawn altogether in May 2025. The Phoenix service was to turn in 15 weeks using up to 15 ships of 6,000-14,000 teu to call at Busan, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shekou, Singapore, Iskenderun, Piraeus, Trieste, Koper, Iskenderun, Mersin, Singapore, Busan. The Phoenix service was 1 of the 6 Asia-Med services
Kawa Shipping has expanded its coverage to the Red Sea, Egypt and Turkey with a new Eastern Mediterranean Express (EMX) service from March 2025. The service is operated irregularly with connections covering Qingdao, Ningbo, Sokhna, Iskenderun, Mersin, Jeddah, Qingdao. The first sailing was made by the 1,063 teu LAN HAI ZHI YUAN that operated an ad hoc Dubai, Sokhna, Iskenderun, Mersin, Jeddah, Qingdao voyage from 2 March 2025. A second voyage by the 2,076 teu KAWA HONGKONG was launched from Qin
Marsa Ocean Shipping has become the latest carrier to join the Asia-Med trade with the introduction of the 2,466 teu MARSA NEPTUNE to Far East-Mediterranean FEM1 service that is jointly operated by CStar Line, Global Feeder Shipping (GFS) and Uniglobal Shipping (UGL). The Marsa ship will join the FEM1 on 24 February 2025 at Qingdao, with the service to be upgraded to a weekly frequency from its previous irregular sailings. The FEM1 calls at Qingdao, Shanghai, Nansha, Jeddah, Ambarli, Evyap, Jed