French shipping giant CMA CGM has announced that three of its Ocean Alliance services will once again sail via the Cape of Good Hope instead of the shorter Suez Canal route, underscoring renewed concerns over security in the Red Sea.
The FAL 1, FAL 3 and MEX services are being rerouted after the company’s ongoing assessment of risks in what it called a “complex and uncertain international context”.
The move marks a reversal of CMA CGM’s recent push to lead container lines back through Suez, a passage many carriers abandoned in late 2023 after Houthi attacks on merchant vessels near Yemen.
The company said the situation would be kept under constant review.
Only weeks ago, CMA CGM had begun cautiously returning to the Red Sea, encouraged by efforts from the Suez Canal Authority to lure back container traffic.
In December it restored its India–US East Coast service via Suez, the same month Maersk completed its first canal transit in almost two years.
A broader resumption of selected CMA CGM services through Suez had been scheduled from mid-January 2026.
That plan has now been partially rolled back. Several services are being diverted once more around the Cape of Good Hope, with the company citing persistent geopolitical uncertainty and a fragile security environment — a reminder that confidence in the Red Sea corridor remains brittle.