September, A Month of Recovery and Resilience
The most significant news this month for the Mediterranean port sector comes from the Suez Canal, one of the two gateways to our region. Canal traffic rose by more than 25% in August year on year, as shipping lines expanded their return to the Red Sea. Two factors are pushing carriers back to the shortest route between Asia and the Mediterranean. The first is the Houthis' decision to focus their threats on vessels linked to Saudi Arabia following the intensification of the war in Yemen, which has changed how carriers assess the risk to the rest of the fleet. The second is congestion in Asian ports due to several typhoons that severely disrupted port operations, which forces shipping lines to reposition vessels in Asia faster. The recovery is real but partial. Early in September, weekly Suez transits reached levels not seen since the start of 2024, yet traffic was still 36% below normal, although 30% higher than in 2025. The Mediterranean is leading the change as Asia-Mediterranean services are clearly prioritized in the return to the Red Sea route. Egyptian ports, from Ain el Sokhna in the Red Sea to Alexandria in the Mediterranean, are the ones benefitting the most of this progress.
Governance is also moving. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has proposed bringing the ports of Trieste and Koper together under a single port management body. There is a precedent in Scandinavia: the merger of the ports of Copenhagen and Malmö into a single company shared by Denmark and Sweden. In Rome, the reform of Italian port governance has reached the amendment voting stage in the relevant committee of the Chamber of Deputies. The reform proposes a national public port agency (Porti d’Italia), somewhat along the lines of the Spanish model, Puertos del Estado. Both debates show how actively Mediterranean port governance is being rethought, a subject MEDPorts explored in its 2025 report on the governance models of Mediterranean ports.
The cruise sector gives further reason for optimism. At Seatrade Cruise Med, held this year in Las Palmas, participants confirmed that Mediterranean ports are extending their cruise seasons well beyond the summer peak. Several ports expect record passenger numbers in 2026, and Barcelona, the regional leader, may pass 4 million passengers for the first time. Almost 50% of the ports attending are planning or considering new terminals and infrastructure. Yet this optimism is tempered by growing friction with local authorities, as several cities have already raised taxes on cruise passengers or plan to do so in 2027.
The picture darkens further east. The Black Sea has become again a chokepoint. On 1 September, the Ukrainian Agrarian Council told grain traders to plan for the Greater Odesa ports staying shut through December–January. With almost no working grain corridor left in the Black Sea, the impact goes well beyond Ukraine, since its ports matter for global food security, especially for North Africa and the Middle East.
There was also good news this month. On 23 September, three large container ships berthed together in Beirut, a new step in the port's recovery since the explosion of August 2020.
Taken together, these developments point to the same lesson: in today's Mediterranean, a port's competitiveness depends as much on its ability to absorb shocks and adapt as on its capacity or location. Resilience also depends on people. According to the latest IMO–WISTA Women in Maritime survey women make up just under 19% of the maritime workforce sampled, and only 1% of seafarers. Ports cannot afford to use only half of their talent pool at a time of such deep change. Both ideas will come together in Malta.
On 26 November, during the World Maritime - International Maritime Conference and Expo, MEDPorts and the Union for the Mediterranean will present the first Mediterranean Most Resilient Port of the Year Award. The day before, on the 25 November, MEDPorts will hold a gender equality challenge. We invite all member ports to join us.