Shipping Company Cancels 55 Voyages

Recently, export purchase orders have dropped significantly, and container spot freight rates are also facing increasing pressure. In response, 2M partners MSC and Maersk have cancelled the Griffin/AE55 sailing in the first week of May and will cancel two sailings on their key Shogun/AE1 service in the coming weeks.

MSC attributed the cancelled voyages to "continued challenging market conditions resulting in congestion and delays across the supply chain" and said it would accept bookings for "other services".

According to the latest data released by Drewry on the 22nd, in the next 5 weeks (weeks 17-21), the three major shipping alliances in the world have successively cancelled several voyages. Among them, the largest number of cancelled voyages is that of THE Alliance with 24.5 voyages; the 2M Alliance with 18 voyages; the least with 12.5 voyages cancelled by the Ocean Alliance; a total of 55 voyages.

In this regard, Drewry suggested that the ongoing uncertainty and low predictability in the current shipping market make it difficult for shippers to plan ahead. To eliminate potential supply disruptions, businesses should seek to build positive relationships and encourage open lines of communication with freight forwarding partners.

Of a total of 725 scheduled sailings on major routes such as the transpacific, transatlantic, Asia-Nordic and Asia-Mediterranean, 78 sailings were cancelled between week 17 and week 21 next year, a cancellation rate of 11%.

According to Drewry's data, 64% of blank sailings during this period (up from 58% in the previous period) will occur on trans-Pacific eastbound trade routes, mainly to the US West Coast.

Loadstar said that export orders in the next few weeks fell by more than one-third. Although Shanghai has resumed production, some factories and warehouses are still closed, and trucking efficiency is still limited.

stop sailing

A few days ago, Ningbo's Container Freight Index (NCFI) commented that some operators from Asia to North Europe have begun to "cut prices" to increase bookings of space, but so far, the impact on the spot freight index is very small, which is similar to that after the Spring Festival and This is consistent with the usual weak demand in the off-season before the peak season begins.

Asia-Northern Europe: Xeneta's XSI Nordic Freight Index fell 4% to $10,849/FEU, while Drewry's WCI and Baltic Freight Index (FBX) fell around 2% to $10,364/FEU and $11,659/FEU, respectively .

Asia-North America: Meanwhile, in the trans-Pacific region, spot rates remained stable this week, with the WCI (Drewry) and XSI (Xeneta) US West Coast freight indices barely changing at $8,758 and $8,595, respectively /FEU, the Baltic Freight Index FBX (including premiums) is $15,552/FEU.

Lars Jensen of Vespucci Maritime said the "baseline assumption" was that freight rates would "continue to decline by about 5% before starting to recover towards the peak season".

The number of imported containers arriving at the port of Los Angeles is down about 20% this week compared to the same period in 2021, the company's data platform Signal shows. Cargo volumes arriving at LA ports next week will be down about 16% from a year earlier.

At the same time, the reduction in imports has significantly reduced vessel wait times, with Signal data recording an average wait time of 2.7 days for vessels to berth and work at the Port of Los Angeles.

At present, the global epidemic situation is still severe, and the impact on foreign trade, shipping, and logistics is still continuing. Affected by the epidemic situation in Shanghai, Ningbo and other domestic port cities, in the next period of time, the shipping company will continue to further adjust the shipping schedule according to changes in the situation.