Golden Week is coming! The shipping company will greatly reduce the shipments and cancel more sailings!
With the arrival of National Day Golden Week in China, shipping companies’ plans to stop sailings also follow. During the upcoming Golden Week in China and even the whole of October, shipping companies will cancel more shipments from the market, and the number of canceled shipments will be higher than the historical average. Blank sailing has long been the preferred way for shipping companies to balance supply and demand. With Golden Week coming, shipping companies have the opportunity to cancel more sailings than before, starting on October 1, to support freight rates by cutting shipments.
For most time of 2020 and 2021, shipping lines have struggled to maintain shipment supply that matches demand. Freight volumes have increased, ports are overcrowded and ships are stuck outside the ports, forcing carriers unable to provide their weekly services on time, forcing blank sailings. However, over the past few months, demand growth has stopped, ships have been underutilized and freight rates have continued to drop significantly. As Golden Week comes, it presents an opportunity for carriers to cancel more sailings than ever before.
Three major alliances cancel 101 sailings
According to the latest data released by Drewry, out of a total of 744 scheduled sailings on major routes such as Trans-Pacific, Trans-Atlantic, Asia-Nordic, and Asia-Mediterranean, 117 sailings were canceled between weeks 39 and 43, the cancellation rate is 16%. In the next five weeks (weeks 39-43), the world’s three major shipping alliances have successively canceled a total of 101 sailings. Among them, the highest number of canceled sailings is THE Alliance with 36 sailings. The number of 2M Alliance is 33 sailings, and the least cancellation of the Ocean Alliance is 32 sailings. According to Drewry’s current data, 68% of the blank sailing during this period will occur on the Trans-Pacific eastbound trade routes. 25% occurred in Asia-North Europe and the Mediterranean, and 7% occurred in the Transatlantic Westbound trade routes.
With the arrival of Golden Week, weaker demand for Asian exports on major trade routes between East and West has led shipping companies to implement blank sailings to offset the decline in demand and freight rates. Especially during Golden Week, Chinese factories will shut down for the holidays. In fact, some shipping lines have terminated some trans-Pacific shipping services to USWC. Carriers are looking forward to the trend in the market and try their best to change the plan to balance supply and demand.
Shipping company cancels shipments and adjusts sailing schedules
Recently, MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, and other shipping companies have had a number of schedule adjustments and sailing cancellations according to the news.
For MSC, the company posted some notices about sailing adjustments and cancellations from the beginning of this month.
On September 9, to meet the weaker demand during the Golden Week holiday, MSC began to plan the sailing schedule. MSC decreased its number of sailings in October to meet the demand:
On September 19, MSC posted the notice about void sailing from Asia to the USA and Gulf coasts:
On September 21, MSC planned to exclude this sailing during the Golden Week holiday since there is a decrease in demand during October:
Maersk also planned some adjustments to meet the decline in demand during the Golden Week holiday.
On September 9, Maersk issued a notice related to the Chinese Golden Week holiday. In order to balance the real supply and drop in demand, Maersk plans to cancel two sailings from Asia to East Africa:
On September 20, Maersk issued a notice of a change of sailing schedule from Asia to North America. The affected sailings and adjustments are as follows:
On September 22, Maersk issued a blank sailing list from Asia to the North America West. It affects the shipments from Shanghai/Ningbo/Yantian in China. The details of the canceled sailing are as follows:
For CMA CGM’s sailing schedule, the Ocean Alliance Asia-Europe route FAL 7 service will implement blank sailings in the 40th and 42nd weeks:
