Maersk Sealand moves ship capacity from Los Angeles to PNW ports

Maersk Sealand moves ship capacity from Los Angeles to PNW ports

   Maersk Sealand will deploy more capacity on the Asia/Pacific Northwest route and skip calls at Californian ports under a major adjustment of its transpacific services to be implemented at the start of the peak season.

   The Danish mega-carrier said it is making changes to its Pacific West Coast services from early July “in response to market demand for expanded use of alternative gateways, as well as more stable options through Los Angeles.”

   Under the plan, the port of Los Angeles will no longer get weekly calls from Maersk Sealand’s TP2 service. Instead, this former Los Angeles/Tacoma service will become a Tacoma/Vancouver (British Columbia)/Dutch Harbor service.

   The carrier’s vessels in the TP9 service, which have called Los Angeles, Oakland and Dutch Harbor, will instead call only at the ports of Los Angeles and Tacoma in North America.

   A spokesman for Maersk Sealand in Copenhagen said the TP9 service will also add some capacity, with ships of 6,000 TEUs due to be employed on this route. This replaces a planned new operation that the Danish carrier called TP10.

   “We will be adding capacity to grow in line with the market — nothing major,” said Jorgen Harling, vice president of business development at Maersk Sealand.

   Harling added that the company’s TP5 service is being restructured from a five-ship to a four-vessel operation. The service will call direct at Shanghai, Kwangyang and Busan, while previous port calls at more southerly ports will be picked up by a new Yantian/Hong Kong/Colombo/Dubai shuttle service, called FEMA 2. The TP5 loop will also stop calls at Oakland.

   Maersk Sealand said its transpacific sailings to Californian ports will be further “aligned with terminal and intermodal schedules to help minimize the impact of peak season pressure in Los Angeles and Long Beach.”

   On the Asia/U.S. East Coast route, Maersk Sealand said it will continue to operate its TP3 and TP7 services via the Panama Canal, but with shorter transit times from Hong Kong to New York. This will be the result of stopping calls en route at Manzanillo (Panama), Miami and Charleston on the TP3 loop. The TP7 ships will continue direct calls at Manzanillo, Miami and Charleston, as well as at Savannah.

   “The Suez Express service remains unchanged, offering all-water service from Southeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast by way of the Suez Canal,” Maersk Sealand said.

   However, Maersk Sealand confirmed that its Suez Express all-water transshipment service now relays cargoes via Salalah, the carrier’s hub in Oman. Until last year, Maersk Sealand transshipped cargoes on this service via Algeciras, Spain.

   Maersk Sealand operates a total of six direct Asia/U.S. West Coast weekly services and two direct Asia/U.S. East Coast weekly loops, as well as the indirect weekly “Suez Express” service.