According to freight forwarders based in Asia, carriers are limiting spot bookings on mainline Trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe services from South China due to capacity shortages caused by the early Chinese Lunar New Year and the cancellation of sailings. The regional trades have also been impacted and some carriers are rolling cargo as a result. Data from Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis shows that carriers have made significant cuts to capacity on these routes, with 29% of Trans-Pacific capacity being blanked in October, 24% in November, 21% in December, and 26.5% of Asia-Europe capacity being blanked in October, 17% in November, and 19% in December. Carriers such as COSCO and Evergreen in the Ocean Alliance and Ocean Network Express and HMM in THE Alliance have halted spot bookings. Hapag-Lloyd has also stopped accepting inbound cargo to inland destinations in South China’s Pearl River Delta and Fuzhou, but cargo consigned to main ports including Hong Kong, Yantian, and Shekou is not affected.
Source: Journal of Commerce.