2M suspends Asia-Europe loop

Maersk and MSC also will void three sailings on two other joint services during China’s Golden Week.    The ocean carrier members of the 2M Alliance — Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. — are suspending one of their jointly operated container services connecting Asia and Europe and blanking sailings on two others during China’s Golden Week celebrations due to “seasonal demand reductions.”
   Maersk and MSC will terminate their AE2/Swan loop, effective with what would have been the Sept. 29 sailing of the MSC Reef from Qingdao, Maersk said in a customer advisory note.
   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the AE2/Swan currently operates with 11 vessels — eight from MSC and three from Maersk — with an average capacity of 19,175 TEUs. The string has a full port rotation of Qingdao, Busan, Ningbo, Yantian, Tangier, Rotterdam, Felixstowe, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Algeciras, Singapore, Hong Kong and Qingdao.
   Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) also takes slots on the AE2/Swan, along with Maersk subsidiaries Safmarine, Hamburg Sud and Alianca.
   Maersk said it will resume operation of the service “in line with demand pickup, which is expected pre-Chinese New Year.”
   In addition, the 2M carriers are voiding the Oct. 1 sailing of their AE5/Albatross service and the Oct. 10 and Oct. 17 sailings of their AE20/Dragon loop.
   The AE5 operates with 12 vessels — nine from Maersk and three from MSC — with an average capacity of 19,312 TEUs and a full port rotation of Dalian, Xingang, Busan, Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg, Aarhus, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Singapore, Shanghai and Dalian.
   The AE20, meanwhile, operates with 10 vessels — nine from MSC and one from Maersk — with an average capacity of 13,768 TEUs.
   In order to ensure port coverage, the 2M carriers will make the following changes to their existing Asia-Europe loops: 
     • Tangiers will be added to AE7;
     • Algeciras will be added to AE6;
     • Port Said will be added to AE20;
     • Le Havre will be dropped from AE6 and added to AE7;
     • Bremerhaven will be dropped from AE7;
     • And Yantian with be added to AE1 (westbound only).
   During the canceled AE5 and AE20 weeks:
     • Beirut will be added to AE15;
     • Genoa will be added to AE11;
     • And Mareseilles Fos Sur Mer will be added to AE11.
   Maersk said it would communicate and further port rotation changes in a separate advisory.
   The suspension of the AE2/Swan and voided sailings come shortly after a similar decision by the members of the OCEAN Alliance — CMA CGM, APL, COSCO, OOCL and Evergreen Line — to skip several voyages on its Asia-Europe services starting in early October.
   “It is our intention to offer our customers reliability and predictability,” Soren Toft, chief operating officer of Maersk Line, said of the move. “We believe that by implementing a structural solution in line with lower seasonal market demand we are supporting our customers’ supply chain needs better than the alternative of irregular and ad hoc sailing cancellations.”