Several carriers have already announced upcoming Trans-Pacific blank sailings for June. The OCEAN Alliance, including CMA (including APL), COSCO (including OOCL) and Evergreen, will remove approximately 25,000 TEU from its Trans-Pacific trade lane in June (this represents over 6% of total capacity).

The news comes amid declining demand due to the low volume of Chinese imports resulting from Section 301 cargo front-loading, as well as the decrease in Eastbound Trans-Pacific spot rates from Asia to the West Coast for a second week, which dipped another 14.6%.

OCEAN Alliance Announced Blank Sailings (June):

 Departing PortSet to Call
June 2FuzhouNansha, Hong Kong, Yantian, Xiamen, Los Angeles, Oakland
June 18QingdaoNingbo, Shanghai, Busan, Colon, Savannah, Charleston, Boston, New York

 

Carriers previously announced a total of 35 blank sailings (22 West Coast bound services and 13 East Coast bound services) from February to early March in response to struggles with balancing supply and demand. The OCEAN Alliance then canceled an additional 10 sailings from March to April, bringing ocean transit reliability to a record low of 40%.

According to Alphaliner, there will likely be additional void sailings announced in the coming weeks, as well as in the 4th quarter, as carriers remove ships from service ahead of the IMO’s January 1st low sulfur mandate.

It does not take an impressive memory to recall that threatened tariff increases and ocean carrier capacity management combined to create the “perfect storm” for US importers last year. At the moment, it is difficult not to imagine that we are seeing history repeat itself.

Shapiro will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available.