Cargo chaos in the Gulf as congestion at Jeddah hobbles land bridge
Hapag-Lloyd has suspended bookings into Jeddah, amid surging congestion brought on by a shift to ...
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Hapag-Lloyd has announced that it will discontinue its transatlantic Caribbean Express (CES) service at the beginning of next year, “due to current unsustainable market conditions”.
The service, on which Maersk Line is a slot charterer and markets as the TA5 string, deploys seven vessels with an average capacity of 2,700 teu, according to the Xeneta-owned eeSea liner database.
The service has a port rotation of Antwerp-Felixstowe-Hamburg-Rotterdam-Antwerp-St John-Philadelphia-Port Everglades-Santa Marta-Moin-Cartagena.
The German carrier said the final southbound sailing of the CES would be the departure of the 2,600 teu Caucedo Express from Antwerp on 3 December, while the final northbound sailing will be the same vessel’s departure from Cartagena, scheduled for 29 December.
“Due to current unsustainable market conditions, we would like to inform you that we will streamline our service portfolio, discontinuing the CES service starting 2026,” the carrier said in a customer advisory.
“This change primarily affects the Latin America-North Europe and Atlantic trades.
“We will replace these important corridors with a mix of existing and new services with details to follow in the coming weeks,” it added.
In terms of freight rates, the normally stable transatlantic trade appears in trouble: today’s World Container Index (WCI) from Drewry saw the headhaul Rotterdam-New York leg losing another 1% this week, to end on $1,796 per 40ft, and are now some 18% down on the same point last year.
Xeneta noted that westbound spot rates were down 10.2% from the end of August, with “North Europe to US East Coast now at a 21-month low, its lowest point since end-2023”.
However, it is unlikely that the removal of the CES service will on its own be enough to halt the rate slide – according to eeSea, total monthly capacity on the westbound trade is around 850,000 teu, with the 11,000 teu of monthly slots on the CES representing just 1.3% of the market.
Indeed, its transition from a Europe-Caribbean service to a transatlantic string is relatively recent – it was relaunched in February this year, shortly before the official launch of the Gemini Cooperation network, with Maersk describing the TA5 as “a one-way service outside the Gemini Cooperation, connecting UK and North Europe to Philadelphia directly”.
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