News / Buffeted by rates and tariffs, TS Lines exits transpacific trade again

TS Tacoma Image: Vesselfinder

Hong Kong-based TS Lines has quit the transpacific trade for the third time, pulling its vessels out of the joint Asia-US West Coast service with Singapore’s SeaLead Shipping and South Korea’s KMTC Line.

With the US imposing another 100% tariff on Chinese imports from 1 November, any rate surge from front-loading would have a short window.

Prior to this week, rates had dropped to loss-making levels, and TS Line is diverting the ships to its core intra-Asia lanes.

The 2,954 teu TS Tacoma will be shifted to the China-Australia service after completing its last transpacific sailing this month, after which SeaLead and KMTC will continue the AWC with three 5,610-6,970 teu ships on a fortnightly basis.

SeaLead will contribute the 5,610 teu Suez Canal and 6,976 teu Northern Monument, with KMTC’s 6,655 teu KMTC Mundra. Forward schedules suggest TS Lines will continue to buy slots on the service until the end of the year.

In March, TS Lines axed its solo China-California AWC2 loop, which deployed four ships on a six-week round voyage.

Linerlytica noted that TS Lines had again failed to sustain market share on the transpacific, after two previous failed attempts in 2010-11 and 2021-23.The intra-Asia carrier had re-entered the transpacific when rates soared during Covid.

Since the correction of freight rates following the pandemic, opportunistic operators like Transfar Shipping, BAL Container Line and China United Lines have withdrawn their long-haul services.

Also this month, Hede Shipping, owned by China’s Tangshan Port, closed its HDS2 transpacific service, ahead of the US Trade Representative’s implementation of port fees on Chinese operators. The 1,809 teu Androklis made the last HDS2 service from Huanghua, arriving at Los Angeles on 5 October.