Both the 2M and THE alliances have withdrawn headhaul capacity in weeks 40 to 44 to mitigate expected reduced demand due to the Chinese Golden Week holiday, the first week of next month.
Alphaliner said that, notwithstanding that September “will be a strong month for the carriers”, their decision to avoid overcapacity in October proved they had “mastered the art of fine-tuning their capacity to match it with market demand.”
At the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown demand slump in May, carriers withdrew 19% of sailings from Asia on the transpacific and cancelled 28% of their scheduled departures to Europe.
However, despite criticism that they over-reacted with their blanking programs, carriers have not only reinstated many of the voided loops, but added extra loaders and sweeper services on the tradelanes.
Currently, capacity deployed between Asia and the US west coast is some 15% higher than for the same weeks of 2019.
Source: The Loadstar