In the face of reduced consumer demand, the five member lines in the Grand Alliance are suspending their EU5 Service between Europe and Asia, effective immediately.
The service is supposed to resume in June.
The alliance, which consists of Hapag-Lloyd, MISC Berhad, NYK Line and Orient Overseas Container Line, has operated the service with eight vessels with an average capacity of 3,300 TEUs.
The ports of call have been Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Singapore, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Southampton, Singapore and back to Shanghai with a roundtrip voyage time of 56 days.
The lines said the suspension is in response to the global economic slowdown that has led to reduced customer demand.
The Grand Alliance continues to offer a variety of services between Europe and the Far East covering all major port pairs with weekly sailings.
Shippers currently using the EU5 service have several other options, as the ports called by EU5 are also covered by the alliance’s EU3 and EU4 services.
The Journal of Commerce Online