SENATOR SHUTS DOWN ALL U.S. OPERATIONS AND SERVICES
In a radical restructuring of its activities, German-based Senator Lines is terminating all its container services to and from the United States, including in the high-volume transpacific and transatlantic trades, and shutting down its U.S. regional organization.
The closure of the entire U.S. office and organization network in the U.S. involves the elimination of about 200 jobs. However, some former employees of Senator in North America have taken new jobs with Hanjin Shipping, the Korean company that is the majority owner of Senator.
From January, Senator will give up its strategy of being a global carrier and become “a specialized carrier that is focusing the business on its real strong trades between Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia (and) Canada,” a spokesman said.
“Besides the general market situation of low rates and huge trade imbalances, the United States traffic in the past years forced us to reconsider Senator Lines’ status as global carrier,” said Hans-Hermann Mohr, chief executive officer of Senator.
The withdrawal from the U.S. market after a presence of about 14 years will reduce the global traffic of Senator by an estimated 30 percent. In 2001, Senator carried 343,000 TEUs to and from the United States, out of a worldwide traffic of 1 million TEUs.
By the end of December, Senator is terminating nine separate U.S.-based container services, out of a total of 22 services in its worldwide network. Most services were operated on a slot-charter basis in cooperation with Hanjin Shipping.
Senator described the changes as a “fundamental restructuring of our service network and sales organization.”
The nine U.S.-based services closed by Senator are in the Asia/U.S., U.S./North Europe, U.S./Mediterranean and U.S./East Coast of South America trades. They are the America Mediterranean Service, All Water Express Service, All Water Express Pendulum Service, China America Express Service, China Express South Service, PNW Express Service, North/South America Service, Pacific North Pendulum Service and Pacific South Express Service.
Senator said that it would maintain its presence its Canada, from where it provides a relatively small Canada/Mediterranean container service. The European regional headquarters of Senator, based in Bremen, will manage the Canadian operations.
Despite ending its transpacific and U.S./Europe services, the carrier will continue its services in the other main east/west trades — Asia/Europe and Europe/Middle East.
Hanjin Shipping, Senator’s majority shareholder, will continue to be active in the United States. Senator said that it will strengthen the “synergy effects” of cooperation with Hanjin in the fields of equipment, logistics and marine operations will be strengthened.
Worldwide, Senator will now employ 450 staff, down from a peak of 952 in 2000. The company said that it is reducing its workforce in Germany by about 20 percent.
Following the recent closure of Trans-Pacific Lines and Tecmarine, Senator is the third carrier in less than two months to cease its U.S. container shipping operations.