What's Actually Changing on the Water
The Cape of Good Hope routing adds roughly 10-14 days to a typical Asia–Europe sailing compared with the Suez Canal, depending on the origin and destination ports. That extra transit time has a cascading effect: vessels spend longer at sea, fewer sailings are available per month on each trade lane, and port congestion builds at key transshipment hubs as schedules bunch together.
Our ocean freight team has rebuilt routing plans across every affected trade lane, prioritizing carrier partners with the most reliable rerouted schedules. We're also securing space further in advance than usual and building additional transit buffer into delivery estimates so clients aren't caught off guard by last-minute schedule changes.
If you have shipments planned on affected lanes over the next quarter, we recommend booking earlier than usual and building extra lead time into any customer-facing delivery commitments. Have a shipment you're concerned about? Reach out to your account coordinator or contact our team directly for a route-specific transit estimate.