Zim has suspended its Asia US east coast ZSE express loop, with the last sailing performed by the 5,936 teu Ian H from Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia, this week, reports the Loadstar.
Transpacific Loop axed
The Israeli carrier operated the service within its VSA agreement with the 2M Alliance, branded the TP23 by Maersk and Liberty by MSC, although Zim supplied almost of the tonnage.
Zim deployed nine 5,400-6,600 teu ships on the pendulum service, with 2M partner Maersk providing one vessel and MSC not contributing tonnage.
In addition to Tanjung Pelepas, the service also called at Cai Mep, Vietnam, and Yantian in China, before transiting the Panama Canal and calling at Charleston, Savannah and New York and returning to Asia via the Suez Canal. Both 2M partners have offered their customers alternative connections via their respective networks in response to the suspension.
Meanwhile, according to John McCown’s October analysis of the top 10 container ports in the US, import volume at east and Gulf coast ports grew 4.3% last month, compared with the previous year, to 1,111,131 teu. However, an accelerating coastal shift from US west coast ports, where import throughput slumped by 23.3% in October, masked a total 9.4% decline in US import containers.
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Source: The Loadstar
