Asia-Europe Container Lane

The busiest deep-sea container corridor, running from East Asian factory ports to Europe via Suez.

Overview

Tens of millions of containers a year move from Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian and Busan through Suez to Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Felixstowe and, increasingly, Piraeus, with transits of roughly 28 to 35 days on ships of up to 24,000 TEU. The lane concentrates the world's largest carriers into alliances that manage capacity with blank sailings. Its shocks set global freight prices: the pandemic boom, the 2021 Suez blockage and the 2024 Red Sea diversions each rerouted capacity and spiked rates worldwide. Rail and air compete at the margins for time-sensitive cargo, but this lane is the trade.