The restructuring of the ocean carrier alliances in February has brought about capacity fluctuations in the Trans-Pacific trade, according to maritime intelligence firm eeSea. Although functional capacity was 20% higher year-over-year, it remained 8% lower compared to January.

eeSea indicated that despite an increase in the number of Eastbound Trans-Pacific services from four to 53 in February, there would be no “equal spoke in capacity”. The firm added that as services are reorganized, overall capacity is expected to decrease, particularly in the second half of February. 7% of the lost capacity is being attributed to a short month and “gaps in service handoffs”.

Compounding these issues, Chinese ports such as Shanghai and Ningbo were reported to have experienced congestion at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday, further reducing capacity levels. eeSea has predicted that Trans-Pacific capacity will stabilize in Q2 and return to about the 330,000 TEU range by late March.

Source: Journal of Commerce