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Higher fuel costs, increased competition and lower revenues have taken their toll on niche container shipping companies operating transpacific services between Asia and North America, reported the South China Morning Post.
The latest casualty is Matson Navigation, which will end its service between Hong Kong, southern China and the US West Coast in the next few weeks, although a Yangtze River Delta-US service will continue.
The Containership Company, which launched transpacific services between eastern China and the US West Coast in April last year, closed its container shipping operations a year later.
Hong Kong-based TS Lines also recently culled one of its three transpacific routes. Despite coming under tough financial pressure Horizon Lines is the only one of these four niche carriers that has not cut its services across the Pacific.
Matson Navigation will end its Long Beach CLX2 express service linking Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai and Long Beach to the US West Coast, with the last ship sailing from Shanghai on Sunday.
Cargonews Asia
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