Shipping Lines

Ocean Network Express (ONE), Maersk and MSC are suspending their joint China Australia service due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a reversal of its previous ‘business as usual stance’ P&O Ferries has today announced that all its ferries travelling between the UK, Ireland and continental Europe will switch immediately to carrying only freight.

Container lines reduced vessel capacity in the Asia trades by some 23% between mid-January and mid-March this year as smaller vessels were deployed according Ocean Insights (OI).

Just as container lines schedules from China seemed to be getting back to normal the 2M Alliance has blanked two Asia – Europe/Med sailings next week as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic starts to hit demand in western nations.

The dramatic drop calls to ports in the Indian sub-continent has led to a sharp rise container freight rates in the first half of March reflecting the effects of large-scale vessel capacity reductions and equipment shortages.

Ship calls have dropped dramatically at Indian ports as container lines with reduced services due to the coronavirus COVID-19 skip calls forcing shippers to tranship cargoes.

Container lines are cancelling surcharges for reefer containers destined for Chinese ports as the congestion caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) impact eases.