POLISH OCEAN LINES SUSPENDS TRANSATLANTIC SERVICES
Polish Ocean Lines has decided to suspend all its transatlantic services,
with immediate effect, after encountering financial problems.
Several ports have been requiring the line to pay for services in advance.
A executive for POL in Gdynia, Poland, said that the U.S. East Coast/Gulf
Coast/northern Europe and the Canada/northern Europe activities of the line were stopped
on Feb. 24.
The decision follows a substantial fall in freight rates in the
transatlantic and the virtual disintegration of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement,
of which POL was a founding member.
POL provided transatlantic services by slot-chartering on vessels of
Mediterranean Shipping and BOLT-Canada, the Europe/Montreal operator. POL had chartered
slots from Atlantic Container Line until January.