Big 3 postpone new transpacific service

Big 3 postpone new transpacific service    The world's three biggest container lines have postponed plans to introduce a transpacific shuttle service this year until the second quarter of 2012, one of the lines said Wednesday.
   Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM had planned to start in May a new transpacific loop — dubbed TP1 by Maersk, Jaguar by MSC, and Hangzhou Shuttle by CMA CGM. But adverse demand conditions in the trade forced the lines — who operate a vessel sharing agreement in the transpacific — to postpone the start of the service three times.
   Now the debut of the service has been pushed back until 2012. The planned rotation of the shuttle service was Ningbo, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Ningbo. Maersk was due to operate all five 6,500-TEU vessels on the loop. Maersk said it was “looking at other options for deployment” of the vessels.
   MSC said the ports in the postponed rotation are already covered by two other loops in the Maersk-MSC-CMA CGM vessel sharing agreement. The Swiss line said the partners are 'confident that the volume offerings in the trade can be served in full on their existing networks.'
   American Shipper reported Wednesday that weekly Asia-U.S. West Coast allocated capacity spiked by 9.6 percent in the second quarter even as rates on key eastbound transpacific lanes have faltered in the first half of 2011.
   The three European lines operate a horde of transpacific, either through the VSA, through separate bilateral agreements or on standalone services. The service being postponed until 2012 was first announced in March as the lines unveiled a shakeup of their transpacific network. ' Eric Johnson