The Alliance (Thea), a container shipping alliance, has announced that its winter plans, including the suspension of Pacific and Asia-Europe routes, will remain in place until next year, while its 2024 service will begin in April.
According to analyst Alphaliner, the "partial extension" of its winter service means that the FE5 Southeast Asia to Nordic Loop, which was suspended in November, and the PS5 Far East to California Loop, which was suspended in September, will remain suspended until further notice.
"This capacity management plan will be extended beyond the original plan until 2024 and Thea's partners say it will remain in place until further notice," Alphaliner reported. ”
EC4 service from Asia to the US East Coast was also suspended in November, but was resumed in April on THEA's enhanced east-west network. Thea includes Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Yang Ming, and One.
The Panama Canal is currently severely restricted due to low water levels, and the number of ships passing through the Panama Canal will be reduced from the normal 34-36 per day to 24 per day.
Alphaliner said the services are currently diverted to the Suez Canal route, which may need to be navigated around the Horn of Africa given security concerns in the South Red Sea.
Meanwhile, France's CMA CGM and Denmark's Maersk Line will open a Caribbean route from the port of Everglades in Miami from January 14.
The service will call at Kingston, La Guairah and Puerto Cabello in Venezuela, Cartagena in Colombia, Puerto Cortez in Honduras, Santo Tomás de Castile and Puerto Everglaz in Guatemala.
The combined service will be operated on a rotational basis by three ships, two from the CMA CGM and one from Maersk, with a deadweight between 1500 and 2500 TEU.
In another U.S. first, Turkish duo Arkas and Turkkon will sign a joint service agreement to operate to the United States, and they have registered a new joint service from the Mediterranean to the East Coast of the United States, calling at ports in Spain, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco before heading to the United States.
Turcon has partnered with Hapag-Lloyd to operate the Mediterranean to the United States, but this will be the first time that Arkas has operated across the Atlantic.
The service will eventually be operated by seven vessels of about 5000 TEU, but in the initial voyage Turcon will supply 5 ships and ARKas will supply 1 boat, ranging from 1800 to 2800 TEU, and ARKas will allocate 300 space on Turcon ships.
The agreement will last for 30 months, with a 6-month notice period if any shipping line wishes to terminate the joint service.