News / Backhaul capacity crisis fears as more Asia-North Europe sailings are blanked

Eleven advertised sailings from Asia to North Europe for next month have now been cancelled, removing nearly 200,000 teu of westbound capacity and threatening a new backhaul space shortage.

The latest blanked voyage to be announced is the 5 October service from Busan: the 14,993 teu Al Mashrab operated by THE Alliance partners Hapag-Lloyd, ONE and Yang Ming on their FE4 loop.

Hapag-Lloyd told customers the voyage was cancelled as part of its vessel maintenance scheme. Other carriers have cited the expected weakness of ...