© Khunaspix Dreamstime.
By Alex Lennane
Nearly 150 sailings were cancelled on the transpacific and Asia-Europe routes between October and February, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants’ new Container Insight Weekly. While the strategy of withdrawing sailings is nothing new, particularly around Chinese New Year, what is different now is the extended period of the practice, which suggests that it could in future become the norm, says Drewry. For shippers moving time- and cost-sensitive perishables, what now appears to be regular ‘ad hoc’ blanked sailings must be a particularly worrying trend, further exacerbating existing capacity volatility and raising fresh fears of rolled cargoes missing vital delivery windows.