• The transpacific container shipping market is bracing for a contraction as major ocean carriers pull services and blank sailings surge in response to slumping demand, falling freight rates, and rising trade uncertainty between the US and China
• ZIM canceled its Central China Xpress service with its final sailing from Ningbo on April 10
• TS Lines shut down its AWC2 service from South China to Los Angeles at the end of March
• MSC has canceled its Mustang service, removing an estimated 12,000 TEU weekly capacity from the FE-WCNA route
The transpacific container shipping market is bracing for a contraction as major ocean carriers pull services and blank sailings surge in response to slumping demand, falling freight rates, and rising trade uncertainty between the United States and China.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services discontinued its ZIM Central China Xpress “in view of the current market conditions impacted by the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the U.S.” The service, launched last July to capitalize on peak freight volumes driven by port disruptions, made its final sailing on April 10 from Ningbo using the 5,500 twenty-equivalent unit Mississippi. The last port call at Los Angeles is scheduled for April 24.
TS Lines has withdrawn its AWC2 loop, which served the South China to Los Angeles trade. The 1,700-TEU vessels on the service were redeployed following the final voyage at the end of March.
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) scrapped its planned Mustang service to the Pacific Northwest — removing an estimated 12,000 TEU of weekly capacity on the Far East–West Coast North America corridor. Seven vessels earmarked for Mustang will now serve other global routes.
These cuts are part of a broader strategic response by MSC and major shipping alliances to stem losses from sliding freight rates and declining US import volumes, according to consultancy Linerlytica. MSC’s Mustang service, which had faced repeated delays since its proposed 2024 relaunch, will now be shelved indefinitely.
Premier Alliance PN4 has also been withdrawn even before its launch.
Ocean carrier alliance ONE has similarly suspended a planned May service connecting China and North America, while removing Wilmington, North Carolina, from an existing rotation.
“The current political climate is extremely volatile and given that tariffs are being imposed and suspended on an almost daily basis, we assume that both the shipping lines and cargo owners are only adjusting their short-term supply chains for now and waiting for things to settle down (one way or another), before making longer-term network adjustments,” according to an April 16 statement from Sea-Intelligence.
Even global forecasts are turning pessimistic. In its cancelled sailings tracker, Drewry notes that in the key East-West trade lanes—transpacific, transatlantic, and Asia-North Europe & Med —75 sailings have been cancelled between weeks 18 (28 Apr-4 May) and 22 (26 May-1 Jun), out of a total of 718 scheduled sailings, representing a 10% cancellation rate.
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