MSC pulls two sailings from the Asia–Mediterranean loop after Suez routing costs outrun the surcharge
The Cape detour now costs more per box than the emergency levy recovers, and the string is sailing at 71% utilisation.
LONG BEACH, CALIF. — MSC has withdrawn two sailings from its Asia–Mediterranean rotation for the second half of August, telling customers the Cape of Good Hope routing no longer clears its cost of carriage at current levels.
The emergency contingency surcharge on the loop recovers roughly $340 per forty-foot container. Bunker and charter costs on the diverted string run closer to $520 once the additional nine sea days are priced in, according to two forwarders who have seen the carrier's August quotations.
Utilisation is the other half of the arithmetic. The string sailed at 71% on its last two rotations, well below the 88% the service carried in the first quarter, and blanking two departures pulls about 17,000 TEU of nominal capacity out of the lane through the end of the month.
Shippers with August bookings on the affected sailings are being rolled rather than reaccommodated on partner tonnage. Two forwarders said they were quoting a fortnight of additional transit to Northern European inland destinations as a result.
Marguerite Han
Runs the ocean topic from Long Beach.Marguerite runs the ocean topic. Twelve years on carrier capacity and alliance strings, six of them reporting from Rotterdam.