In a bid to halt plummeting rates on primary trade lanes, where dwindling demand has resulted in over-allocation, shipping lines are beginning to blank scheduled sailings to constrain space and drive up prices.
Word out of London this morning is that 8.8% of capacity on Asia-Europe rotations will be blanked by carriers across all three shipping alliances: 2M, Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance.
At a time when global trade is focusing on China’s upcoming Golden Week festivities in the first week of October, French line CMA CGM has said it will pull five sailings over this period.
In real terms, it means capacity over a very busy period will be decreased by 100 000 TEUs.
The two leading lines, MSC and Maersk, will also remove capacity from 2M’s services between Europe and Asia, amounting to 10% of scheduled allocation (seven sailings), in the run-up to October 1, the start of Golden Week.
THE Alliance, the biggest of the three by membership, comprising Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express (ONE), Hyundai Merchant Marine, and Yang Ming, will apparently blank 10 sailings, 18% of its combined TEU capacity.
The forced capacity constraints will reportedly be sustained over 12 weeks.
