The Grand Alliance will suspend its Japan-China Express service to the U.S. West Coast for the slack winter season beginning in late October.
The Grand Alliance, which consists of Hapag-Lloyd, NYK and OOCL, will compensate for the JCX suspension with other trans-Pacific services that cover the same port pairs.
The alliance suspended the JCX service at the same time last year and relaunched it in May. OOCL, which announced the suspension on its website, said the alliance will monitor market conditions and make a final decision on the start date of the suspension of the string of six ships, which each have an average operational capacity of 3,617 20-foot equivalent container units.
This will remove roughly 21,700 TEUs of capacity from the trans-Pacific trade at a time when rates have been sliding because of overcapacity.
The alliance said it will adjust other strings during the winter season as follows:
— An eighth vessel will be added to expand the SCX service to cover the Japan market that was previously served by the JCX service.
— A sixth vessel will be added to the CCX service to include a port call in Qingdao that was previously served by the JCX service.
— The SCX service will drop its eastbound call in Kaohsiung but this port call will be added to the SSX service
The port rotations of these three services during the winter season will be as follows: The SCX service will call Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Kaohsiung, Shekou, Cai Mep, Laem Chabang, Singapore, Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Oakland and back to Tokyo.
The CCX service will call Pusan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai (WGQ), Yangshan, Pusan, Los Angeles, Oakland and back to Pusan. The SSX service will cover the following ports: Kaohsiung, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian, Shekou, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Long Beach and back to Kaohsiung.
The Journal of Commerce Online
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