News / Emirates Shipping Line exits transpacific

Emirates Shipping Line (ESL) is quitting the transpacific market – the Dubai-based operator a victim of falling freight rates.

ESL will shut down its Sun Chief Express (SCX) service that connects the Vietnamese ports of Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong with the southern Chinese port of Shekou and the US west coast port of Seattle.

The final SCX sailing will be on 20 March, when the 2,381 teu ESL Mombasa leaves Ho Chi Minh City, to arrive at Seattle on 7 April.

SCX was launched in April 2022 by Swire Shipping for US NVOCC UWL, operated fortnightly by three 2,380-2,750 teu Swire ships until that July, when ESL took over, also deploying three vessels.

UWL took the sailing slots from Vietnam, while ESL provided on-demand slots from Shekou.

Consultancy Linerlytica claimed ESL and UWL had effectively gone back on plans announced last December to expand the SCX into a weekly service, using six ships on the route from June.

But UWL cancelled the sailing of the 2,554 teu Apollon D from Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, citing “an unusually soft market forecast and unprecedented seasonal decline in business volumes”.

UWL said two additional sailings planned for April were under review.

The Shanghai Containerised Freight Index shows that on 27 February, the Shanghai-US west coast rate gained 4% from the previous week, to $1,857 per 40ft. However, carriers have not succeeded with their 1 March GRIs of around $1,000 per 40ft as cargo volumes have not caught up.