“Following yesterday’s announcement from Japanese container line ONE that it is to participate in three transatlantic services with Ocean Alliance carriers, there was further confirmation today that next year will see the Ocean and Premier alliances jointly operating transatlantic networks.

According to analysts at liner database eeSea, the network rejigs represent a reform of the current transatlantic services operated as THE Alliance, which is set to be replaced by the Premier Alliance at the beginning of February.”

“According to the eeSea liner database, the CGX service deploys 12 vessels, with an average 4,200 teu capacity, while Hapag-Lloyd said the new rotation would kick off with the departure of the 6,500 teu Copiapo from Shanghai on 3 January.”

"Shipping intelligence platforms Xeneta and eeSea have announced a partnership to offer insight into pro-forma transit times.

The collaboration will post scheduling intel gained by eeSea on Xeneta’s platform."

""Our customers need to connect ocean transit times with the pricing they receive from suppliers," says Thorsten Diephaus, Vice President, Strategic Alliances, Xeneta. "Adding eeSea’s pro-forma transit time data as well as real-time transit time data to Xeneta will empower our customers to make better decisions, and ultimately move us towards a more efficient and transparent global shipping ecosystem."

Simon Sundboell, Founder & CEO of eeSea adds: “We are excited to partner with Xeneta to bring a new level of insight and transparency to the industry. Port-to-port transit times and schedule reliability at load and discharge are increasingly seen as decisive parameters when selecting carrier partners. As such, this partnership will help cargo owners and logistics providers make more informed decisions during tender season and throughout the year."

"As the ILA strike at US east and Gulf coast ports enters its second day, with container terminals across the seaboards now closed, anchorages outside ports have begun to fill up.

However, initial signs indicate that carriers might opt for different strategies for vessels that are unable to dock at ports in the region.

According to the eeSea liner database, the east coast port of Savannah has the biggest queue, with some 10 ships at anchor and another seven en route."

"ILA president Harold Daggett (pictured) commented via a post on Facebook yesterday: “Yes, I am fighting for us every fucking day, these greedy bastard corporations overseas all they want is money, money, money, and they don’t give a shit about us.”

Danish liner consultancy eeSea currently counts 260 boxships with a forecasted arrival into strike affected ports in the next seven days. Tails on the inset map above represent the last 24 hours movement while a dot represents a vessel not moving."

"A Loadstar analysis of the eeSea liner database’s forthcoming US east and Gulf coast vessel calls shows a number of call omissions, with vessels either slow-steaming to the closed ports, at anchor, or returning to non-US ports.

For example, the 11,850 teu Ever Feat, deployed on the Ocean Alliance’s AWE5 Asia-USEC service, omitted its call at Baltimore today and is heading straight back to the Vietnamese port of Cai Mep."

"As the clock ticks down to the midnight expiration of the current ILA-USMX master contract, The Loadstar has received the first confirmation of a container vessel skipping its scheduled US east coast calls.

Destine Ozuygur, head of operations and forecasting at liner database eeSea told The Loadstar that the 3,400 teu MSC Sagitta, deployed on MSC’s intra-Americas Canada Gulf Service was the first confirmed ship to make “a ‘true’ inducement call to Halifax and omitting her two US east coast ports along the way, although she was still slated to visit three Canadian ports by proforma,” she said."

“PIL had the most reliable schedule among the top 12 container lines in Q2 2024 when arranged by average delay time, breaking Maersk’s streak at the top since Q3 2021, according to eeSea’s latest container reliability scorecard.”

“As uncertainty hangs over Canada’s rail system being shut down by a strike, shipping lines on the transpacific trade have begun to cancel calls to the country’s main pacific gateways, Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

“Anticipation of a strike keeps carriers on their toes, with some already taking significant action to omit, blank, or swap calls into Vancouver in June and beyond,” an eeSea trade update said.”

“The Q1 Schedule Reliability Scorecard, published by liner database eeSea this week, included an insight into how bunching and delays ripple across a service.

Breaking down the vessel arrivals on THE Alliance’s transpacific TP4 service, it is effectively a postmortem of schedule disruption, demonstrating how delays increase in magnitude over the course of several rotations.”

“Fears of widespread congestion across west Mediterranean container ports may have abated for the present, but a prolonged continuation of the Red Sea crisis could place serious pressure on the region’s port capacity.”

“The first sailing with be on 11 May with the departure of the 4,250 teu ANL Wangaratta, which is currently deployed on the south-east Asia-west Australia AAXW feeder service jointly operated by CMA CGM, Cosco and OOCL, according to the eeSea liner database.”

“According to the eeSea liner database, there are currently 23 monthly liner services across all carriers between Asia and US east coast, compared with 25 in April last year and 30 in April 2022, which also included one direct India/Middle East-US east coast service.”

“Indeed, maritime and supply chain intelligence firm eeSea’s weekly transpacific update reported Oakland as “still struggling with high congestion”, whereas the neighbouring California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach “continue to enjoy smooth sailing”.”

“In fact, according to container market intelligence firm eeSea’s January Schedule Reliability Scorecard (SRS) analysis of schedule integrity, the THEA grouping “remains a distant fourth” behind the 2M Alliance, non-alliance lines and the Ocean Alliance.

Moreover, according to eeSea data, THEA languished at the foot of the reliability rankings “pre, during and post-pandemic”.”

“Simon Sundboell, Founder of Consultancy eeSea, opined in a LinkedIn post that Hapag-Lloyd, whose capacity is nearly 1.98 million TEUs, is the largest of THE Alliance’s members, and the grouping will not survive without it.”

“In agreeing to partner with Maersk from February next year on the main east-west trades, Hapag-Lloyd has torn up today’s existing alliance structure with its current group, THE Alliance suddenly finding itself with a small global presence.”