Because of cargo volumes decrease, three alliances to cancel more than one-third of Asia sailings

The three major shipping alliances are preparing to cancel more than a third of their Asia sailings in the coming weeks in response to a drop in export cargo volumes, according to a new report from Project44.

Data from the Project44 platform shows that between 17 and 23 weeks, THE Alliance will cancel 33% of its Asian sailings, Ocean Alliance will cancel 37% of its Asian sailings, and 2M Alliance will cancel 39% of its first voyages.

MSC said a few days ago that the 18,340TEU “Mathilde Maersk” sailing on its Silk and Maersk AE10 Asia-North Europe route in early June will be cancelled “due to the continued severe market conditions”.

Unprecedented and severe congestion at ports around the world continues to cause cumulative delays across multiple voyages on the Asia-Mediterranean service network, Maersk said. This situation is caused by a combination of increased demand and measures across the port and supply chain to combat the outbreak. Cumulative delays are now creating further gaps in sailing schedules and have caused some Asian departures to be more than seven days apart.

In terms of port congestion, Project44 data shows that the detention time of imported containers at Shanghai Port peaked at nearly 16 days at the end of April, while the detention time of export containers remained “relatively stable at about 3 days.” It explained: “Excessive detention of imported boxes is due to a shortage of truck drivers unable to deliver unloaded containers. Likewise, a significant drop in inbound export volumes meant fewer containers were shipped out of Shanghai, thus shortening the detention of export boxes. time.”

Maersk recently announced that the density of refrigerated cargo yards in Shanghai Port has gradually eased. It will re-accept the booking of Shanghai’s reefer containers, and the first batch of goods will arrive in Shanghai on June 26. The Shanghai warehouse business has partially recovered, and the Ningbo warehouse is currently operating normally. However, the driver is required to show a health code. In addition, drivers from outside Zhejiang Province or drivers with a star in the itinerary code must provide a negative report within 24 hours. Cargo will not be accepted if the driver has been in a medium to high risk area within the past 14 days.

Meanwhile, cargo delivery times from Asia to Northern Europe continued to increase due to lower export volumes and the resulting voyage cancellations, with Project44 data showing that over the past 12 months, cargo delivery times from China to Northern Europe and the UK have increased respectively. 20% and 27%.

Hapag-Lloyd recently issued a notice that its MD1, MD2 and MD3 routes from Asia to the Mediterranean will cancel calls at Shanghai Port and Ningbo Port in the next five weeks of sailing.