As in recent years, the G6 Alliance lines, (APL, Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, MOL, NYK, OOCL), have led the way with confirmation of a capacity reduction move on the Asia/US trades serving both the East and West Coasts, in view of the upcoming slack season.

The six lines involved in the alliance have now confirmed their intended winter deployment programme for the Asia/US trades effective Weeks 43 and 44, which effectively takes out over 10,000 TEUs of weekly capacity from the trades.

On the Asia/US East Coast trade, the all-water via Panama Canal services known as the NYE and SCE will be combined to form a joint service which will be known as the NY2.

The resultant NY2 service will offer direct calls at Xiamen, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai, Pusan, (Panama Canal transit), Manzanillo (Pan), Kingston, Savannah, Charleston, New York, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Kingston, Manzanillo (Pan), (Panama Canal transit), Balboa, Pusan and Xiamen.

The move to combine the two services takes around 4,500 TEUs of weekly capacity.

On the Asia/US West Coast trade, the G6 lines will suspend their Central China 2 (CC2) service, and add the existing CC2 call at Pusan to the Central China 4 service known as the CC4 service. The move will result in CC4 port rotation changing to Shanghai, Ningbo, Pusan, Los Angeles, Oakland and Shanghai.

By suspending the CC2 service, the G6 lines will take out around 5,800 TEUs of weekly capacity on the Asia/US West coast trade.

By Paul Richardson

Sea Freight Correspondent | London