The Alliance suspends AL1 trans-Atlantic service for 2021 as demand lags trans-Pacific

Container shipping consortium THE Alliance said Jan. 21 it would continue suspending one of its five trans-Atlantic services for 2021 as demand and rates for the route lagged more lucrative services from Asia.

The Alliance added that a restructuring of the remaining four trans-Atlantic would commence from the second quarter, including visits to ports services by the suspended AL1 service, which connected Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, and London Gateway in Europe with Norfolk, Virginia, Philadelphia, New York, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, on North America’s East Coast.

Platts Container Rate 9 — UK-Continent to East Coast North America — rose 10% to $2,000/FEU Jan. 20 from $1,800/FEU six months prior, while backhaul rates for the same route were down $50/FEU to $400/FEU over the same period.

By contrast, a surge in demand and related equipment shortages in Asia pushed Platts Container Rate 5 — North Asia to East Coast North America — 71% higher over the same six-month period to $5,600/FEU Jan. 20. Platts Container Rate 11 — North Asia to UK-Continent — more than quadrupled from six months ago to $8,500/FEU Jan. 21.

THE Alliance members announced in December that a new service — East Coast Loop 6, or EC6 — would be launched from April onward, pending regulatory approval, that directly connects ports in China, Taiwan, and South Korea with the US Gulf ports of Houston, Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans through the Panama Canal.

THE Alliance also announced that it will merge its EC1 and EC3 services between North Asia and the US East Coast in Q2 by deploying larger ships with 13,500 twenty-foot-equivalent-unit carrying capacity.

THE Alliance is a ship-sharing agreement between shipping lines Hapag-Lloyd, One Ocean Express, Hyundai Merchant Marine, and Yang Ming.
Source: Platts