?Golden? opportunity for Asia/Europe rates?

æGoldenÆ opportunity for Asia/Europe rates?    Roughly 40 percent of Asia/northern Europe containership capacity is to be pulled during China's Golden Week holiday in early October.
   The short-term capacity reduction is being done through skipped sailings on 11 of 29 services on the trade, according to maritime news service Alphaliner, which said the moves are aimed at pulling up sinking Asia/Europe ocean freight rates.
   'It appears that some carriers have simply postponed their sailings, with some double sailings planned for subsequent weeks,' Alphaliner said. 'Some of the sailing omissions appear to have been made at short notice, in reaction to the drop in volumes. These moves are aimed at stemming the drop in freight rates.'
   Alphaliner said weekly Asia/northern Europe capacity is 15 percent higher than a year ago, but still 6 percent lower than the same time in 2008.
   According to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data, which continuously tracks liner carrier capacity actually available to shippers on a given trade, weekly allocated capacity from Asia to northern Europe was 236,284 TEUs on Sept. 26, 19.8 percent higher than 12 months ago.
   Also notable, Maersk Line said this week it is canceling the Oct. 10 sailing of its TP2 transpacific service, which it operates in tandem with Mediterranean Shipping Co. The service, which has a rotation of Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Xiamen, Shanghai, Qingdao, Long Beach and Kaohsiung, will resume on Oct. 17. CMA CGM takes slots on the TP2 service, which MSC calls Eagle.