Ocean carriers in THE Alliance will continue to suspend a trans-Pacific West Coast and an Asia-Europe container service as part of its 2024 network plan but will restore two other services to the Pacific Northwest and the US East Coast.
In addition, THE Alliance will expand port coverage to make up for the suspensions and plans to continue using Panama Canal routings for some US services.
Hapag-Lloyd said Wednesday the Pacific South Loop 5 (PS5) from Asia to the US West Coast and the Far East Loop 5 (FE5) will remain out of service into 2024 “until further notice.”
The PS5, which offered 8,500 TEUs in weekly capacity, was cut in mid-2023 as part of a broad slate of changes that ocean carriers made to reckon with lower import demand into North America. The FE5, which used 14,000-TEU ships, was cut in October due to “the present market situation,” Hapag-Lloyd said at the time.
However, THE Alliance will still cover Asian ports served by those suspended services with continuing calls by other services. Those include a Tokyo port call on the PS3 service from the Indian subcontinent and Asia to the US West Coast in lieu of the PS5 service and a Colombo port call on the FE4 service due to the FE5 suspension.
Other Asian port calls added in 2023 will also be kept in place on its trans-Pacific services in 2024, THE Alliance said. Those include South Korea’s Busan on its PS7 service to Southern California.
The Pacific North Loop 3 (PN3), which was suspended in September due to the import demand downturn, will resume next year with an additional call at Vietnam’s Port of Haiphong along with service from China and South Korea. Another Pacific Northwest service, PN2, is dropping port calls to Busan and Taiwan as part of next year’s rotation, according to the schedule update.
The East Coast 4 (EC4) service to the US East Coast via the Suez Canal will also be restored, with the first sailing expected in the second quarter of 2024.
Longer Suez transits
THE Alliance also noted that its two US East Coast services and one Gulf Coast plan to use Panama Canal routings in 2024, unless transit or draft restrictions worsen. The three services have been temporarily rerouted away from the Panama Canal due to its draft and transit restrictions, requiring a five- day longer transit and an additional one or two ships to meet scheduled arrivals.
THE Alliance said it will offer additional calls on Pacific Coast ports with those three services. That includes a call to Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo for the EC2 service to the US Southeast and a call at Panama’s Port of Rodman for the Gulf Coast EC6 service.
THE Alliance will also continue a weekly service from Europe that started in mid-2023 to Canada’s Port of Saint John.
Source:
Angell, M. (2023b, December 13). The Alliance’s 2024 Network adds port calls as services remain suspended. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/alliances-2024-network-adds-port-calls-services-remain-suspended_20231213.html