All three east-west alliances have now committed to reinstate blanked sailings in October on the booming transpacific trade lane.
Maersk, part of the 2M vessel sharing agreement, communicated last week its intention to reinstate blanked sailings from Asia to the west coast of North America next month, citing enormous pent-up demand, as has Cosco and subsidiary OOCL, both of whom are in the Ocean Alliance. THE Alliance member Hapag-Lloyd, meanwhile, has told clients it is bringing back all but five of its blanked sailings to the west coast next month.
Maersk said in its customer advisory that it anticipates strong import volumes to North America to carry on until at least November.
Writing on LinkedIn, Jensen, the CEO of Copenhagen-based SeaIntelligence Consulting, noted: “The challenge is that 2020 has proven to be highly volatile and unpredictable. If the volume remains very strong the added capacity should not be a problem but the question is whether carriers – for a potential third time this year – will also show resolve in reigning it in again if demand drops once more.”