G6 Alliance Withdraws Loop 6 from Its Europe-Asia Route

Members of the G6 Alliance announced today additional void sailings within their Asia-Europe schedule due to changes in market demand, which resulted in suspending of the Loop 6 service. 

The move comes as carriers decide to cut complete services prompted by weak market conditions on the route. What is more, the suspensions are not only reserved to smaller ships since Loop 6 is comprised of 13,200 TEU units.

Major alliances have all resorted to reshuffling of services. In particular, CKYHE removed their CES/NE8 loop in March. A month earlier, the G6 partners laid up their Loop 6 service initially for 11 weeks, extending it by further eight weeks, according to Drewry.

2M, formed by Maersk Line and MSC, has also made considerable changes to its five services on the route by removing overlapping port pairs in order to reduce the number of direct port calls in the network and increase reliability through slower network speeds.

The changes might have brought about some improvement taking into account that since the middle of April the picture for the westbound trade has decidedly taken a turn for the better with many of the carriers reporting full ships with cargo roll-overs occurring.

“Whether the current buoyant cargo movements from Asia prove to be a short-lived phenomenon or not, westbound 40ft spot rates are likely to stay above USD 1,000 until at least the end of the peak season in September,” Drewry forecasts.

Due to the latest changes, the G6 Alliance, comprising of APL, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Orient Overseas Container Line, will continue the following rotation:

  • Loop 1: Kobe – Nagoya – Shimizu – Tokyo – Hong Kong – Vung Tau – Singapore – Jeddah – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Southampton – Le Havre – Singapore – Hong Kong – Kobe
  • Loop 4: Ningbo – Shanghai (Yangshan) – Xiamen – Shekou – Hong Kong – Yantian – Singapore – Colombo – Southampton – Antwerp – Hamburg – Rotterdam – Jeddah – Jebel Ali – Singapore – Hong Kong – Ningbo
  • Loop 5: Kwangyang – Pusan – Shanghai (Yangshan) – Ningbo – Kaohsiung – Yantian – Singapore – Le Havre – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Southampton – Singapore – Shekou – Kaohsiung – Kwangyang
  • Loop 7: Qingdao – Shanghai (Yangshan) – Ningbo – Hong Kong – Yantian – Singapore – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Gdansk – Gothenburg – Antwerp – Southampton – Singapore – Yantian – Qingdao

The G6 Alliance said that it will make further service adjustments where necessary.