P&O NEDLLOYD PLANS “CONTROLLED GROWTH” IN TRANSPACIFIC
P&O NEDLLOYD PLANS “CONTROLLED GROWTH” IN TRANSPACIFIC
P&O Nedlloyd is planning to continue to expand its activities in the transpacific container trade, but said that it has no set market share goal for the next few years.
“We want to grow in a profitable manner,” said Jeremy Nixon, senior vice president, transpacific trade at P&O Nedlloyd. Further growth will depend on “the dynamics of the market” and on competition, he added.
Having entered the transpacific trade in 1997, P&O Nedlloyd acknowledges that it currently has a relatively small market share of about 3 percent. The Anglo-Dutch global carrier has consistently increased the capacity it deploys in the Asia/North America trade since 1997. From 83,440 TEUs deployed in 1997, the annual eastbound capacity deployed by P&O Nedlloyd has increased to 202,588 TEUs in 1998, 239,460 TEUs in 1999 and 292,050 TEUs this year, representating about 5,600 TEUs a week eastbound.
According to World Liner Supply, a reporting service of ComPairData, the eastbound capacity of all transpacific services is currently 10.2 million TEUs a year, or about 196,000 TEUs a week.
P&O Nedlloyd currently operates seven weekly Asia/North America services as part of the Grand Alliance and another weekly transpacific service under a vessel-sharing agreement with China Shipping and CMA CGM.
Nixon said that the Grand Alliance has not yet decided whether it would introduce an eighth Asia/North America joint service next year.
Carriers face the problem of a widening eastbound/westbound cargo imbalance in the transpacific trade, which requires the costly repositioning of empty containers back to Asia, he said. P&O Nedlloyd and other carriers have chartered ships solely for the purpose of moving empty containers back to Asia.