Houston—2M Alliance container shipping members A.P. Moller-Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company have canceled four sailings out of China around the Lunar New Year holiday in February to get back on schedule after port congestion caused widespread delays, the companies said on Jan. 26.
Maersk said the blank sailings, which were all on routes from Asia to Europe, have "been driven by a combination of rapidly increased demand and measures to fight the pandemic that led to slower supply chain operations across ports, inland depots, warehouses and inland transport modes."That announcement came on the heels of more than 20 cancellations by THE Alliance members One Network Express, or ONE, and Hapag-Lloyd for trans-Pacific sailings between February and March.
"Ships are waiting in line significantly longer than normal both in Asian and North American ports, leading to vessels being days and, in many cases, weeks behind their normally scheduled dates of call," Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory to customers. "We, therefore, have no choice but to implement a comprehensive schedule recovery plan to get vessels back in their intended positions. This will result in some services not having a sailing for one-to-two weeks."
The cancellation of sailings around Lunar New Year, which begins Feb. 12, has been a common practice as China and other Asian countries scaled back production around the holiday celebrations and export volumes declined. Shipowners had already pre-planned 62 blank sailings around Lunar New Year last year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in China.
But this year, instead of acting on weak demand for container capacity in Asia, shipping lines are hoping to utilize a modest lull in volumes around the season to reposition more empty containers in Asia before exports resume at their current strength, said Lars Jensen, CEO of consulting firm SeaIntelligence.
"Hence from a 'normal' perspective, blanking 21 sailings for THE Alliance is not particularly odd," Jensen told S&P Global Platts. "Of course, this year the challenge is that these sailings could potentially have helped alleviate some of the bottlenecks faster," Jensen added.
Stay-at-home orders during the pandemic had the effect of boosting demand for imported goods from Asia, causing Asia-to-Europe rates to increase more than fivefold to $8,500/FEU on Jan. 26 from $1,525/FEU on July 27, according to data from S&P Global Platts. Asia-to-West Coast North America rates rose by 67% to $4,500/FEU over the same six-month period.
