ONE and Maersk Plan Additions of Transpacific Sailings Between North Asia and the USWC in Hopes to Improve Capacity

Transpacific connectivity in ocean sailings has remained rather fragmented and unreliable—especially for shippers exporting out of South Korea and Japan. The consistently high demand for vessel capacity from China combined with the increased pressure on reducing transit time on transpacific eastbound routes has led many carriers to drop sailings or omit calls on vessels scheduled to stop by Japan and South Korea.

To restore balance and improve efficiency along the transpacific route, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Maersk are bringing additional sailings between northern Asia and the U.S. west coast.

The plan for new vessels to service this route includes the NYK Delphinus (4,888 TEUs capacity) and the Balsa (2,542 TEUs capacity). Additionally, a raft of extra transpacific services to increase efficiency and reduce transit times. Although these additional vessels remain unclarified at this time.

These new sailings will include a sweeper sailing that will start March 11 in Busan, South Korea and will have the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kobe load cargo on the vessel. It would be expected to arrive at the Los Angeles port on April 2. In addition to this, they are planning three other departures between April and June at Japanese ocean ports.

Carriers Dropping Calls in Japan and South Korea

Mainline carriers have drastically reduced calls to Japan over the last couple of years, and it has left exporters frustrated dealing with extra delays and fees. A major reason for carriers skipping calls to Japan and South Korea are their attempts to make up for lost time and delays due to congestion at U.S. west coast ports.

Maersk has plans to bring on extra loaders to offset the missed sailings on its TP1 and TP9 services at Canadian ports Prince Rupert and Vancouver. The head of imports and change management at Maersk Asia Pacific said that a minimum of eight gap loaders will call at the ports in February and March to fix the missed TP1 and TP9 sailings.

Contact our team at InterlogUSA for more information regarding this topic. We are happy to field any questions or inquiries you may have with how it can affect your specific situation. Additionally, check out our weekly market updates to stay up to date with relevant freight news and developments across the industry.