OCEAN Alliance blanks Asia-Europe trip

The voyage is being withdrawn due to China’s National Day holiday.    The OCEAN Alliance — comprised of CMA CGM, APL, OOCL, COSCO and Evergreen Line — will blank a voyage on the Asia-North Europe trade in early October.
   OOCL said it will withdraw the Loop 1 sailing on the Asia-North Europe trade of the 21,413-TEU OOCL Scandinavia (westbound ETA Shanghai Oct. 7, eastbound ETA Rotterdam Nov. 9).
   According to BlueWater Reporting, OOCL also refers to the loop as LL1, while it’s called the NE1 by Evergreen, AEU1 by COSCO, FAL5 by CMA CGM and FX5 by APL.
   The loop deploys 11 vessels averaging 20,362 TEUs and has a rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Singapore, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Gdansk, Wilhelmshaven, Felixstowe, Singapore, Yantian and Shanghai.
   This latest blanked OOCL voyage is in addition to several others the OCEAN Alliance announced earlier this month between Asia and North Europe and the Mediterranean in October as a result of China’s National Day holiday. The founding of the People’s Republic of China is celebrated Oct. 1 each year, kicking off a seven-day Golden Week festival. As a result, many businesses across the country shut down for the week, which often leads to carriers blanking sailings around this time.
   Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar New Year, also kicks off a Golden Week festival, resulting in blanked voyages after the new year starts. Chinese New Year began Feb. 16. The next Chinese New Year will start Feb. 5, 2019.