Shipping: As Seasonal Downturn Looms, How Are Container Ship Operators Reacting?

Following up on last Thursday's "Shipping: So What Happens when IMO 2020 Collides with Cargo Slump?"
From FreightWaves:

Container lines boost blank voyages as Q1 downturn looms

The downturn in U.S.-China trade is forcing ocean carriers to cancel a growing number of weekly sailings in the trans-Pacific trade lane, according to a container shipping expert. The cancellations point to a longer recovery in trade between the world’s two largest economies and augurs a poor start for U.S. ocean freight demand in 2020.

At least 24 weekly sailings between Asia and the U.S. West Coast have been canceled in the first eight weeks of 2020, as reported by U.K.-based container research firm PR News Service.
Those sailings represent about 198,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in capacity out of commission for the period.

Also known as “void” or “blank” sailings, service cutbacks are a seasonal phenomenon due to China’s Lunar New Year, which starts Jan. 25 and ends Jan. 30. Nine of the canceled sailings are occurring during that week....

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