Suez Canal traffic hits its highest since the Red Sea crisis began

According to the statement reported by Xinhua, October 2025 saw 1,128 ships, 47 million net tonnes and $373 million of revenue. Ship numbers therefore rose 32% year on year, net tonnage 86% and revenue 94%; October net tonnage was 88 million tonnes. Rabie said he expects the trend to continue as most international lines keep up their transits. The canal is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency.

Tonnage growing almost 3 times faster than ship numbers shows that the returning traffic is made up of large vessels. The 10 largest container networks deploy 8.7 million TEU on Far East–Europe trades. According to a Metro Global analysis on 27 October, about 5.5 million TEU of that is now on the Red Sea route. Of 46 direct Far East–Europe services, 24 pass through the Red Sea; Asia–Europe services returning to Suez are about 7 days shorter on average.

The constraint is the security assessment and its price, the war premium. S&P Global data from 22 July put the premium at 0.5% of hull value for a Bab el-Mandeb transit and 0.1% off Saudi Arabia's west coast, against 7.5–10% in Hormuz on the same date. The data are about 3.5 months old, but the size of the gap explains the logic of the return. A route does not close until the premium becomes unbearable, and next to Hormuz the Red Sea premium remains bearable.

The risk has not gone away entirely. According to NBC, the Houthis seized the port of Mocha in September, seen as critical to controlling Red Sea traffic, and the siege of Taiz was continuing as of 6 November. Metro Global also wrote that the return is uneven and that the canal remains below its historical potential. A verified new attack on a merchant ship in the Red Sea will determine whether this $724 million month can be repeated.