Blank Sailings

2M Alliance announces blank sailings on Transpacific services

2M Alliance of Maersk and MSC has announced several blank sailings on its Transpacific services due to the ongoing congestion at ports across the US East Coast caused by the recent East and Gulf Coast port work stoppage.

The two companies have published the following blank sailings:

Asia to US East Coast

Service Vessel / Voyage Voyage First Port / Proforma ETD

TP11/Elephant

TP16/Emerald

TP88...

Maersk Sydney

443W

Laem Chabang / October 27

MSC Texas

444E

Xiamen / October 31

https://container-news.com/2m-alliance-announces-blank-sailings-on-transpacific-services/

Sea-Intelligence sees carriers as “bullish” for the peak season

As we approach the end of the first third of the traditional container shipping peak cargo season, examining the levels of blank sailings and planned capacity deployment for the remainder of the third quarter provides valuable insights into carriers’ confidence for the 2024 peak season.

Sea-Intelligence’s following graph illustrates the percentage of blanked capacity scheduled for the rest of the peak season (weeks 29-39) for two major East/West trade routes: Asia-North America West Coast and...

https://container-news.com/sea-intelligence-sees-carriers-as-bullish-for-the-peak-season/

Sea-Intelligence reports sharp drop in blank sailings

Spot rates have experienced a continuous decline over the past several months. In response, shipping lines face two possible strategies.

One option is to increase blank sailings, reducing supply and halting the decline in spot rates. The other would be that despite the decline, spot rates are still much higher than before the Red Sea crisis and the pre-pandemic levels, which would potentially incentivise shipping lines to book as much cargo as possible at current rates, to capitalise on this.

“The...

https://container-news.com/sea-intelligence-reports-sharp-drop-in-blank-sailings/

Carriers set for major blanking programme

Hong Kong consultancy Linerlytica suggests that the carriers are struggling to achieve the General Rate Increases (GRIs) that they have supposedly imposed amongst the increase in capacity and persistent low demand, which will lead to greater capacity management according to one expert.

Long term shipping commentator and industry insider John McCown in his latest report suggests that the impact on capacity caused by the congestion as a result of the pandemic allowed carriers to take advantage of...

https://container-news.com/carriers-set-for-major-blanking-programme/

Running out of time to bring capacity down, reports Sea-Intelligence

Danish maritime data analysts of Sea-Intelligence looked at the post-Golden week capacity deployment on Transpacific and Asia-Europe in the 42nd week of the year and saw significant overcapacity on both trades.

Absent any serious demand growth, the analysts expected that the carriers would announce a host of blank sailings to counteract this supply-side growth, but four weeks on, hardly any new blank sailings have been announced, and capacity growth for the remainder of 2023 is still quite...

https://container-news.com/running-out-of-time-to-bring-capacity-down-reports-sea-intelligence/

Blank sailings boost NCFI

The composite Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) quoted 622.2 points in Week 41, which improved 4.8% from the previous week and has remained on an upward trend for two back-to-back weeks.

More specifically, spot rates for container exports from Ningbo-Zhoushan surged as shipping lines made blank sailings to reduce capacity during the National Day Golden Week.

On the 21 trade routes to which the individual NCFIs are applied, the indices increased on 15 and decreased on the remaining six....

https://container-news.com/blank-sailings-boost-ncfi/

Blanked sailings gain pace following China’s Golden Week holiday

Vespucci Maritime’s Lars Jensen wrote in the Baltic Exchange’s latest commentary that the number of sailings being blanked in the wake of Golden Week is higher than usual, as the container shipping market reaches a crossroads and demand is way below the record newbuilding deliveries.

Sailings are expected to be blanked until 22 October at least.

New vessels are left idle at times out from the yards rather than being put into service immediately.

Sea-Intelligence’s recent data shows that 4% of the...

https://container-news.com/blanked-sailings-gain-pace-following-chinas-golden-week-holiday/

Container lines add blank sailings to match supply with lower demand in Golden Week

With the upcoming Golden Week holiday in Asia in early October, as factories close, and container demand to and from Asia declines, shipping lines respond by blanking sailings to match supply with the lower demand, according to latest Sea-Intelligence report.

“However, when we first looked at the blanked capacity at the 2023 Golden Week two weeks ago in issue 629 of the Sea-Intelligence Sunday Spotlight, the carriers had not planned anything near to what was necessary to meet the blanked...

https://container-news.com/container-lines-add-blank-sailings-to-match-supply-with-lower-demand-in-golden-week/

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