Big carriers reduce North-South options

This has been highlighted by the recent move by Hapag-Lloyd to reduce the number of its weekly services offered between Northern Europe and the East Coast of South America (ECSA) by adopting slot charters.  Drewry’s assessment is that it is not just niche-market players who have been struggling on the routes, although they have clearly felt most of the pain.  It suggests that more structural changes lie ahead.

“Whatever form these changes take, including the possible extension of East-West alliances, shippers will already be concerned by the dramatic decrease in services offered by ocean carriers,” suggests Drewry in its weekly container insight report.

“Over the past five years, the number of separate strings offered between Europe and ECSA alone fell from 13 to eight (including two fortnightly con-ro services offered by Grimaldi Lines).  In the interim, only Costa/Maruba fell by the wayside, so the rest were lost through consortia expansion,” states the report.