Market Report - 2/2026

Carriers Remain Cautious Toward Suez Canal Return

A Gaza ceasefire in Oct. ‘25 raised hopes for normalized traffic through the Suez Canal, but renewed Houthi threats and a regional military buildup by the U.S. casts doubt on whether the shipping route can maintain any stability.

• Amidst heightened geopolitical tensions, Houthi forces recently declared solidarity with Iran while the U.S. is actively increasing its military presence throughout the region, both land and sea.
• CMA CGM, which has been gradually resuming service through the Suez Canal, recently pulled back its efforts and re-routed its ships.

Riyadh Air, which is backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), plans to connect Riyadh with 100+ new destinations by 2030. The airline’s cargo operations currently use belly capacity from its passenger fleet, but the airline has many widebody aircraft on order.

Nigeria started to disburse the cabotage vessel financing fund (CVFF), a scheme created over two decades ago to boost domestic ship-ownership. With a digital portal now launched, qualified applicants could access up to $25m with an eight-year loan tenure and an interest rate of 6.5%.

• Allegiant Air acquired Sun Country Airlines, the freight operator for Amazon. Each airline will operate separately until they obtain a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

• FedEx is two steps closer to creating a separate FedEx Freight division after filing papers with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and naming its board of directors. When the new company launches on June 1^st, it will instantly become the country’s largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier.

Canada’s Port Saint John in New Brunswick—adjacent to Maine in the U.S.—completed its four-year $178m West Side Modernization Project on the hub’s Atlantic seaboard. Upgrades include new equipment and systems that will quadruple container terminal capacity from 150,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 1m TEUs annually.

The first phase of the Mato Gross State Railway (FMT) project throughout the central Brazilian state is expected to be completed during the second half of this year. The FMT project intends to build 743km of new rail line, connecting five different regions in the process.

Two new 50-gauge ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes have entered service at the Jacksonville Port Authority’s (JAXPORT) Blount Island Marine Terminal.

The Misurata Free Zone (MFZ)—Libya’s main container gateway handling >60% of the country’s trade—will receive $2.7b to gradually increase the port’s capacity to 4m TEUs per year.

Algeria’s Béchar – Gâra Djebilet iron ore railway, which will connect industrial production and key ports via 950km of heavy-haul track.

Gabon’s 648km mainline rail upgrade will repair unstable sections between Ndjolé and Franceville, increasing capacity overall.

In a move to strengthen domestic production capabilities, Mexico’s government introduced tariffs ranging from 10%-50% on 1,000+ products from China, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nicaragua, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and South Africa.

The Trump Administration and U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) are working to close a decades-old tax loophole that allowed cargo routed through Canadian and Mexican ports to avoid U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) fees.

Both large and small shippers can bid for direct access to the U.S Postal Service’s (USPS) same-day or next-day delivery infrastructure starting in early 2026. Winners will gain access to 18,000+ delivery destination units (DDUs), which are the last stop in the USPS network before packages reach their final address.