Direct Karachi-Europe Shipping Service Returns After Red Sea Detours Pushed Up Exporters' Costs

Pakistani exporters are getting a direct route to Europe back. Maritime Affairs Minister Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry announced on October 8 that Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has restored its PREMIUM IPAK container service, running weekly out of Karachi Gateway Terminal International straight to seven European ports: Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Antwerp, Le Havre and London Gateway, with an intermediate call at Colombo.

What changed, and why it mattered that it was gone

For much of the past two years, container lines serving Pakistan have been rerouting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope rather than through the Suez Canal, after repeated attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea made that route too risky to insure or sail. The detour adds roughly one to two weeks to a Karachi-Europe sailing and raises fuel and insurance costs that shipping lines pass on to exporters through higher freight rates. Chaudhry pointed directly to that disruption as the reason exporters had been stuck with longer routes and higher transportation costs and delivery times on shipments bound for European and US markets.

A direct weekly service doesn't undo the Red Sea situation — Houthi attacks on shipping and on land targets in Saudi Arabia have, if anything, intensified this year, as we've covered in our reporting on strikes near Riyadh and Abha — but it does mean Pakistani cargo reaches Europe without needing a longer, costlier detour through intermediate hub ports first.

Who benefits

The textile and apparel sector is the direct beneficiary. Textiles remain Pakistan's largest export category, and the industry closed FY26 at roughly $18 billion even as a historic cotton production slump squeezed domestic supply. Faster, cheaper access to European buyers — still among the largest markets for Pakistani garments and home textiles — matters directly to margins in an industry where shipping costs are a meaningful share of landed price. A weekly direct sailing also gives exporters more predictable scheduling for time-sensitive orders, rather than having to plan around transshipment delays at third-country hubs.

The bigger trade picture this fits into

The restored route lands at a moment when Pakistan's export numbers have been improving on paper but still losing the race against imports. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data for September put exports at $2.94 billion, up 17.6% year-on-year, but a faster rise in imports pushed the monthly trade deficit to $3.56 billion, 6.2% wider than the year before. Anything that lowers the cost of getting Pakistani goods to market without changing what's being shipped — which is exactly what a restored direct shipping lane does — works on the export side of that equation rather than the import side, where the structural pressure actually sits.

Chaudhry was careful not to overstate the announcement. He said the restored service should not be read as a resolution of the wider challenges affecting international shipping routes — the Red Sea remains a live risk, and MSC's decision to bring back the PREMIUM IPAK service reflects a commercial judgment about this one route, not a declaration that the region has become safe for shipping generally. Freight planning for Pakistani exporters will likely stay more volatile and costlier than it was before the Red Sea disruptions began, even with this route back in service.

What to watch next

No sailing schedule or date for the service's first weekly departure had been published alongside the minister's announcement. Exporters and freight forwarders will be watching MSC's own booking schedules to confirm when capacity actually becomes available, and whether other container lines follow MSC back onto a direct Karachi-Europe routing or continue running the longer Cape of Good Hope detour.

Build Better Pakistan's Economy Desk tracks developments affecting Pakistan's trade, exports and shipping costs.