Trans-Pacific Update

2M alliance partners – MSC and Maersk – recently announced plans for a strategic cooperation with Israeli container line Zim, which means the three carriers will share capacity between Asia and the US East Coast from September.

The parties will share five loops, which is expected to help each carrier manage capacity against demand better. The new alliance will introduce a new direct service between Laem Chabang port and East Coast ports and by adding a call at Colombo, will be able to facilitate India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile on the trade, carriers are starting to reduce capacity ahead of the peak trans-pacific shipping season, as trade tension between China and the United States continues to rise.

The trump administration and China have been applying higher duty rates to the importing of each others products, which has added to the over capacity problems already present in the trans-pacific trade.

THE Alliance and Ocean Alliance are both expected to drop a vessel loop from their schedules during August. This follows the announcement last month that 2M suspended their Eagle service indefinitely, in addition to rationalising port rotations on three other services.

UniOcean Lines are continuing to operate our extensive service schedules with numerous vessel loops from Asia, including our Trans Pacific, Northern Europe, Australasia and Inter Asian services.