Ocean carriers find a way to deploy their expanding fleets

Ocean carriers are slowing-down their ships and deploying extra tonnage on more robust routes as they endeavour to soak up surplus capacity.

And the transatlantic tradelane, which has so far avoided the worst of the freight rate collapse contagion affecting export services from Asia, is seen as a good option.

Maersk advised today it would be adding three extra ships during the first quarter on the North Europe and Mediterranean to US east coast and Gulf coast loops it operates together with its vessel-sharing partner MSC within their 2M alliance agreement.

It said during Q1 it would add one ship to the 2M North Europe to US east coast and Gulf coast TA1/NEUATL1 and TA3/NEUATL3 loops, and one to the Mediterranean to US east and Gulf coast TA6/MSC Pearl string.

Mearsk said: “Slowing global demand has left us with extra capacity that we can use to improve the reliability of our services.

“With these changes we can reduce schedule gaps and slidings, boost weekly coverage and allow for more robust supply chain planning,” it added.

And the company was keen to emphasise the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the slower service speeds of the ships. It said this would “help us meet our goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions across our business by 2040”.

Nonetheless, extra capacity on the route will add to the downward pressure on freight rates on the transatlantic, which has begun to see weekly declines of up to 10% across the spot market indices, to levels of around $6,500 per 40ft.

In June last year, spot rates on the route were close to $10,000 per 40ft, with rates boosted by a combination of a capacity crunch, equipment shortages and port congestion in both North Europe and the US.