Container shipping leader APL has today announced a reduction in capacity and significant changes to its global service network in response to increasingly challenging conditions in the major container trades.
Commenting on the changes, APL President Eng Aik Meng said: “The traditional seasonal softening of demand in the main container trades has been compounded by the global financial crisis and economic slowdown. In response to these factors, APL is taking quick and decisive action to adjust to this reduced demand and reconfigure our service networks to ensure we continue to meet our customers’ container shipping needs.”
The main changes to APL’s global service network are detailed below:
Asia-Europe APL will reduce capacity in the Asia-Europe trade by close to 25%.
From 2 November 2008, APL’s CEX (China Europe Express) Service will be suspended until further notice. The last vessel operating on the CEX will be the APL Austria with an ETA of 26 October at Qingdao.
In light of this change, APL has revised port coverage and voyage length of its SCX (South China Express) service.
The revamped SCX will make new westbound calls at Xiamen, Colombo and Southampton and new eastbound calls at Salalah and Hong Kong. The SCX will cease calling at Thamesport and eastbound at Chiwan. The SCX service will now deploy nine vessels.
The first vessel operating under revised SCX port coverage will be the APL France with an ETA at Ningbo of 3 November.
The SCX revised port rotation is Ningbo, Yangshan, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Singapore, Colombo, Southampton, Zeebrugge, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Salalah, Singapore, Hong Kong and Ningbo.
Transpacific APL will reduce capacity in the Transpacific trade by around 20%.
The PS3 (Pacific South Express 3) service has been suspended. Subsequently, the PCX (Pacific China Express) service has been upsized and has the following revised port rotation: Ningbo, Yangshan, Kwanyang, Pusan, Long Beach, Oakland, Pusan, Kwanyang, Ningbo.
APL has also suspended the PSW (Pacific South West) service. In light of this change, the SAX (South Asia Express) service now makes additional calls at Yantian and Chiwan. The revised SAX rotation is: Singapore, Yantian, Chiwan, Singapore, Kaohsiung, Chiwan, Singapore.
The PCE (Pacific Coast Express) omits calls at Xingang and Nagoya, but includes an additional Pusan call in the eastbound direction. Revised coverage is Qingdao, Pusan, Yokohama, Singapore, Oakland, Dutch Harbor, Yokohama, Pusan, Qingdao.
Xingang is now covered by direct APL feeder service, which also calls at Dalian and Pusan.
Intra-Asia The SSX (Singapore Subcontinent Express) service has been suspended. The SSX route will be covered by a combination of the CMX (China Middle East Express) and the CSS (China Singapore Service).
The CMX has been upsized to a five ship loop with a revised rotation of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Jebel Ali, Nhava Sheva, Colombo, Singapore, Shanghai.
The CSS will provide additional coverage of Shanghai and Ningbo.