News / Almost 40 transpacific sailings set to be blanked in next fortnight

Photo: Port of Los Angeles

Close to 40 transpacific services are set to be blanked over the next fortnight, with more to come in what is looking like an absolute near-term bloodbath on the lane.

Indeed, the port of LA last month reported a 13% year-on-year decline in processed volumes.

With Cosco having blanked all three of its standalone Week 8 services, Linerlytica is reporting a total of 37 blankings across the major networks between weeks eight and nine, and a further 19 scrubbed over the course of March.

Port of LA executive director Gene Seroka said: “January imports landed at 421,000 container units, down 13% from last year’s higher levels, and the consumer confidence index is at its lowest point in 11 years.

“Everyone from Wall Street to Main Street to my street is paying attention. On the export side, we handled 104,000 teu, an 8% drop year over year – our lowest monthly output in almost three years.”

However these near-term struggles are expected to ease, with Linerlytica and Mr Seroka expecting an upturn. The analyst suggested: “Capacity will return very quickly in March, with additional capacity still to be added from the end of April onwards.”

This additional capacity will come in part from the Premier Alliance and Wan Hai, which will introduce two new US west coast services.

 And Mr Seroka indicated that cargo, while down year on year, was looking better than “weak”, noting: “Purchase orders are not being cancelled; this is something we’ve witnessed in other years that were far bumpier from an economic output standpoint.

“Furthermore, I watch the purchase orders that go out – these go out three months in advance to the factories in Asia – and right now these purchase orders are looking stable. This is a good sign.”

And Mr Seroka suggested that volumes this year would decline by less than 10% year on year, pointing out that he had kept in mind that this was compared with the “elevated” 2025 volumes, “when importers were scrambling to get cargo in ahead of tariffs”.

Looking at total throughput, he also pointed out that January’s result was “only” 3% off the Californian gateway’s three-year average.

There are those that would challenge the upbeat tone of the port director, Sea Intelligence that indicated US consumer confidence was very definitely trending downwards.

It wrote in its weekly market update: “Growth in US consumer spending on goods is trending downwards, and for container shipping it is noteworthy that furniture spending growth is now negative.”