CMA CGM launched Ocean Rise Express in late February as a new weekly service linking Kobe, Nagoya, Yokohama, Xiamen and Yantian with Rotterdam, Hamburg and Southampton, with the inaugural sailing set for 2 April 2026. The carrier said the service would offer transit times of 38 days from Yokohama to Rotterdam, 41 days to Hamburg and 45 days to Southampton.
On its own, that would have been just another network announcement. What makes the story interesting now is the route. CMA CGM’s own schedule data for the OCR service shows a westbound call at Jeddah on 26 April 2026, indicating that the vessel is heading into the Red Sea and onwards to the Suez Canal rather than taking the longer diversion around southern Africa.
That is a notable shift because the Cape of Good Hope detour has been the default for Asia–Europe container services since mid-December 2023, when attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea pushed major carriers to suspend or reroute Suez transits.
A Suez routing cuts both distance and transit time compared with the Cape route, which is why the route change matters more than the service launch itself. CMA CGM’s own marketed transit times for Ocean Rise Express reflect the commercial value of the shorter corridor.
At this stage, however, this does not look like a full market return to Suez. What it suggests is that CMA CGM is testing or selectively restoring one Asia–North Europe service on the shorter route while the wider industry remains cautious.
