Asia Low Demand Leads To Loop Suspension

The 2M Alliance have suspended one of their service loops indefinitely, following the continuation of low demand for ocean freight container movements from Asia.

Since prior to the Chinese New Year period, sailings on their AE1 service have been successively blanked week after week, and the service has now been suspended by Maersk and MSC.

The loop previously called at Rotterdam and Bremerhaven and not the UK directly, but European bound containers have been moving on to UK loops. This is not a problem right now due to low demand, but could impact space if volumes increase prior to the traditional peak season.

Both Maersk and MSC have confirmed changes to three of their five Asia / North European routes to compensate for the loss of the AE1 service. This will hopefully improve reliability to 2M schedules, which have been continuously disrupted due to blanked sailings.

The team at Croft are monitoring developments across all carrier schedules.

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