MSC and the Ocean and Premier container shipping alliances are withdrawing some transpacific and Asia-Europe services in a bid to to stem falling freight rates, according to consultancy Linerlytica’s report this week [The Loadstar].
MSC’s hapless transpacific Mustang service, which was supposed to have been reintroduced last July but was delayed by bottlenecks in Singapore, will not materialise at all, with its intended vessels moved to other lanes.
The Ocean Alliance has delayed this month’s Asia-North Europe string (NEU3) launch.
The half-year health check on the state of the maritime markets finds shipowners in a better place than they anticipated 12 months ago. While tankers will have to wait for a meaningful vaccine-led recovery, box and bulk are booming.
The coronavirus outbreak exposed the fragility of global supply chains that move goods between countries. Due to the volatility of the logistic market, carriers are facing new risks and the need to promptly respond to changes in order to manage them. The global cargo transportation market is experiencing significant difficulties caused by abrupt decrease of the transport infrastructure throughput due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
