The number of blank sailings has been ramped up drastically on the Transpacific, but not so much on Asia-Europe, according to a new report by Sea-Intelligence.

Using its Blank Sailings Tracker, the Danish maritime data analysis company noted that it looked at how the carriers were reacting (in terms of blanking sailings) to the collapse of demand, especially of the imports to North America and Europe.

"Basically what we see here is that the number of blank sailings has been ramped up drastically on the Transpacific, but not so much on Asia-Europe," Sea-Intelligence said.

It added that there have been 34 additional blank sailings on Asia-North America West Coast, and 16 on Asia-North America East Coast.

 Figure 1 shows a snapshot of the additional blank sailings that were announced (or unannounced ones that were captured by us) for the week 42-52 period in the past 2 weeks. (Source: Sea-Intelligence)

For the former, carriers have announced an extra 7-11 blank sailings in all but 5 weeks of the analysed period.

However, Sea Intelligence said for weeks 51 and 52, carriers have scheduled no blank sailings on the Asia-North America West Coast, which is a reflection of the carriers' indecision as to how to approach the potential pre-Chinese New Year rush.

"It appears more to be a wait-and-see approach, in terms of whether there will be a seasonal demand spike," the maritime analyst said.

"On Asia-Europe however, we don't see a similar trend, with Asia-North Europe only seeing an additional 6 blank sailings, and Asia-Mediterranean seeing an additional 4 blank sailings," it added.