PRESS ROOM

With our comprehensive portfolio of international container shipping services, the U-Freight Group notes that container shipping lines plan to cut 59 sailings in the trans-Pacific from mid-September through October, according to maritime consultancy Drewry.

THE Alliance’s suspension of a trans-Pacific service next month adds to the raft of cancelled sailings and other service changes that ocean carriers have planned now through well into October as they attempt to better balance ship supply with import demand.  

Hapag-Lloyd has announced that the Pacific Northwest 3 (PN3) service it operates under its alliance agreement with Ocean Network Express, Yang Ming and HMM will be suspended following the October 8 sailing from Hong Kong.

THE Alliance has already announced a series of service changes in September. Over the next three weeks, it plans to blank 12 sailings — two to the Pacific Northwest, five to Southern California and four to the US East Coast — accounting for nominal capacity of 119,000 teu.  

2M Alliance partners Mediterranean Shipping Company and Maersk also announced this month that 11 trans-Pacific voyages scheduled between September 25 and October 9 will be blanked, accounting for 108,000 teu in nominal capacity. Those include four services to Southern California ports, six to the US East Coast and one to the Gulf Coast.

In addition, schedules from carriers of the Ocean Alliance show changes to sailing frequency or outright cancellations on 18 services through the end of October with nominal capacity of 159,000 teu. Cosco Shipping and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) will offer fortnightly, in place of weekly, sailings on their 5,800-TEU Dahlia service to the Pacific Northwest through October. Evergreen Marine will also offer biweekly sailings on its 12,000-TEU Southwest Express Service to Los Angeles through October in place of weekly service.  

With Asian imports to the US down 20% year-to-date, the trans-Pacific is bearing the brunt of service cuts. Maritime consultancy Drewry’s cancelled sailings tracker indicates that the trans-Pacific will account for 59 of 104 cancelled sailings worldwide originally scheduled between mid-September and the end of October.   

Drewry added that with service cuts and schedule changes coming fast, shippers and [beneficial cargo owners] are advised to remain attentive, as these developments could potentially result in schedule disruption and delays in cargo movements.

You can find more information about the U-Freight Group’s ocean freight services by visiting the relevant pages of this website or speaking to your usual contact in our company.