Carriers in the CKYH Alliance have slashed transpacific, transatlantic and Asia/Europe capacity in response to declining demand, falling rates and "growing uncertainty in the world’s economy."
The capacity cuts come on top of those implemented in mid-October in the transpacific and Mediterranean-Far East trades by the four lines that make up the alliance -- COSCO, "K" Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin.
The looming rationalization of services include an 18 percent reduction in the TAS-1 service connecting the United States and Europe. The carriers said port rotation and schedule for the service will remain the same but they will use four 2,500-TEU vessels instead of 3,000-TEU ships, beginning in the middle of November.
Meanwhile, the alliance's Mediterranean-Asia-America Pendulum service will be terminated from early 2009. That service, which employs 13 5,500-TEU vessels, represents around 13 percent to 15 percent of the CKYH carriers' capacity in the Pacific Southwest trade, but the lines said they will attempt to offset the shortfall by using other services, like the South China Service (SEA), as a substitute.
Lastly, including the Asia/Europe portion of the MAP pendulum, the carriers are taking roughly 9 percent of their capacity out of their Asia/North Europe trade by also terminating their China North Europe (CNX) service as of January 2009. The CNX service uses eight 4,000-TEU vessels.
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