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MSC shipping said its independent operation MSC Shipping Route:Asia-North Europe Swan Loop will be suspended for six consecutive weeks from week 37 to week 42 as demand weakens.
MSC Shipping Route:Asia-North Europe Swan Loop
It will also cancel three consecutive Asia-Mediterranean Dragon service (Asia-Mediterranean Dragon service) sailings in weeks 39, 40 and 41.
Drewry recently predicted that in view of the continued delivery of new ships into the capacity and the weak peak season, ocean carriers may implement a more stringent stopping strategy to prevent a further decline in freight rates, which may lead to shippers / BCO suffered temporary cancellation of the voyage.
Earlier, MSC announced a rotation plan for the Swan schedule, which includes an additional call at Felixstowe in Northern Europe, but also eliminates a number of rotations to Asian ports.
The 36th week of the adjusted Swan service will still be sailed on September 7 from Ningbo, China on the 4,931 TEU ‘MSC Mirella’.
MSC Shipping Route
The Swan circuit was relaunched in June this year as a separate service from the 2M Alliance. However, MSC has been trying to justify the extra capacity and has reduced the size of vessels deployed from around 15,000 TEU to a maximum of 6,700 TEU.
Consultancy Alphaliner says: “Weak demand for cargo in July and August forced MSC to deploy smaller vessels and cancel sailings.” As a result of the weak demand, MSC decided to cancel three consecutive sailings on its independent Asia-Mediterranean Dragon loop.
Indeed, the latest edition of the Ningbo Container Freight Index (NCFI) commented that the Nordic and Mediterranean routes “continue to cut prices to solicit more bookings,” leading to a drop in spot rates on both routes.
Meanwhile, consultancy Sea-Intelligence believes that shipping lines have been too slow to adjust capacity ahead of China’s National Day holiday. CEO Alan Murphy said, “If shipping lines want to announce more stoppages, there is not much time left.”
According to Sea-Intelligence, on trans-Pacific routes, for example, total capacity cuts on trade routes during Golden Week are currently just 3%, compared to an average of 10% from 2017 to 2019.
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MSC Shipping Route
Murphy said, “In addition, due to lukewarm peak season demand, it is fair to say that the blanket sailings required to keep market rates stable will have to exceed 2017 to 2019 levels, which will put further pressure on shipping lines’ stopping strategies in October.
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MSC Shipping Route
