COSCO INCREASES CAPACITY IN DEPRESSED TRANSPACIFIC MARKET

COSCO INCREASES CAPACITY IN DEPRESSED TRANSPACIFIC MARKET    State-owned China Ocean Shipping Co. has increased capacity on two of its weekly transpacific services as part of its alliance with “K” Line and Yang Ming Marine, going against the trend of capacity cutbacks made by other shipping lines.
   By phasing in larger ships in its “CES” and “CEN” Asia/West Coast of North America services, the Chinese line has added 1,187 TEUs a week, or 23 percent, to the combined capacity of both services, according to ComPairData, the global liner shipping on the database.
   The CES service now employs five larger vessels instead of six smaller ones, and will stop calling eastbound at Yokohama and Hong Kong. Its weekly capacity went up from 2,966 TEUs in October to 3,400 TEUs now. The revised port rotation for the CES service is Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai, Kobe, Nagoya, Long Beach, Oakland, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai, Kobe and Nagoya.
   The CEN service has phased in larger vessels, increasing its average weekly capacity from 2,099 TEUs in October to 2,852 TEUs now, according to ComPairData, which tracks the capacity of all the services on the east/west trades.
   Several of the smaller ships in the two transpacific services are being switched to COSCO’s new Asia/Eastern Mediterranean service.
   China — COSCO’s home market — is the only portion of the transpacific market that is still witnessing growing cargo volumes.
   Contrary to COSCO, the New World Alliance, the Grand Alliance and Maersk Sealand recently confirmed the withdrawal in late November of three Asia/West Coast of North America weekly services. This represents a combined reduction of about 12,000 TEUs a week, or 6 percent of the capacity provided by all the shipping lines in the trade.