Hapag-Lloyd will suspend its weekly Antwerp-New York shuttle service from mid-December in an extended winter program "until the expected market volume returns."
The last westbound sailing of the German carrier's AES Atlantic Express Shuttle from Antwerp will be on Dec. 14 and the eastbound service will shut down with the last sailing from New York on Dec. 18.
Hapag-Lloyd in mid-September launched the weekly service, which offers a nine day transit in each direction, to boost capacity on its existing U.S. East Coast services on other port pairs.
"The exact timing of the reintroduction of the service will be based on close monitoring of the market," Hapag-Lloyd said.
The carrier said it will continue to ship committed volumes on one of its other North Atlantic services during shutdown of the Atlantic Express Shuttle.
The Journal of Commerce Online