2 April 2024 (Lloyd's List) - THE remaining members of The Alliance have set out their new network plans for the transpacific that will come into place following Hapag-Lloyd’s departure from the partnership next year.
The shake-up will see a cut in the number of services from 16 to 13, with calls to US east coast destination falling from five to four and Asia-US west coast services reducing from 11 to nine.
For the Asia-US east coast trade, the changes see one less port call in Qingdao, Xiamen, Yantian, Kaohsiung, Cai Mep and Singapore at the start of the voyages and a reduction of one call each at New York, Norfolk and Savannah and two fewer calls at Charleston, according to analysis by Sea-Intelligence.
On the Pacific, the reorganisation will see the end of calls between Kwangyang and Hong Kong to the Pacific northwest.
“Additionally, there will no longer be a direct connection into Prince Rupert in the Pacific northwest,” Sea-Intelligence noted.
The end of calls to Hong Kong on the Pacific southwest services means that Hong Kong has now been dropped entirely from the network for west coast services.
“This does not bode well for the port of Hong Kong but should also be seen as a sign that an element of network consolidation is afoot, especially related to transhipment hubs,” said Sea-Intelligence chief executive Alan Murphy.
“Analysis of network design and network efficiency will show that fewer, but larger, hubs are economically more efficient. Hong Kong appears to be the first major victim of this. But as the new alliance constellations improve their networks in the coming years, it is likely that more ports could risk the same fate as Hong Kong.”
Despite the fall in alliance services on the transpacific, Ocean Network Express said it would now have 16 services on the transpacific in total as it seeks to take up the slack.
“Following the long-term partnership with HMM and Yang Ming within The Alliance scope on the Pacific, and the addition of the already announced ONE independent WIN and AP1 services from April 2024, ONE will deploy 16 core weekly services on the Trans-Pacific trade from February 2025,” said chief executive Jeremy Nixon.
“The emphasis will be on quality end-to-end direct services with high schedule reliability. The core products will include sufficient sea speed buffers and are designed so that the impact of Hapag-Lloyd’s departure in 2025 will have a minimal impact on ONE’s network and customers over the post-Chinese New Year disengagement period.”
