DCN October Edition 2019

LINER TRADES TO THE AMERICAS
6.1 %
The first quarter of 2019 saw exports from Australasia to North
America grow a not-insubstantial 6.1%, from 113,900 TEU in the
first half of 2018 to 120,800 TEU
intersecting services in the region: “It’s never our intention to drop
calls and no-one wants to tell customers they’ll have to wait a week
[or fortnight] but we can usually cover in a matter of days using
our network.”
WEST COAST RE-WORK
On the west coast, 2019 has been all about bedding down and then
fine-tuning the ‘new’ format introduced by what was previously
known as the OVSA (Oceania Vessel Sharing Agreement) at the end
of 2018.
Group membership remains the same – ANL, Hapag-Lloyd and
Maersk (in Hamburg Süd guise) and despite much palaver at the
time, the combined service structure of one weekly loop and one
fortnightly loop, each largely mimicking the old PSW and PNW,
was little changed (although each member’s participation is now
standardised across each loop).
The revitalisation was underpinned by a shift to fewer but larger
ships – from 4 x 2500-2700 TEU on PNW and 7 x 3500-5000 TEU
on PSW – to a reasonably uniform fleet of 8 x 3800-4500 TEU, with
four allocated to each string. MSK/HSD has just replaced one of
the two remaining 3800s with a 4250 and will likely replace the
other soon.
Alas, the four plus four didn’t quite work out operationally,
with the old bugbear of delays on the fortnightly service causing
Adelaide calls to be dropped too many times and schedule integrity
to blow out.
As one insider says, “there just weren’t enough buffers in the
schedule, especially on the northwest run. If we were just a day late
maybe we could catch up by speeding up – and burning expensive
fuel – but if it was any more than that we were at the mercy of
missed windows compounding, and that meant we were faced with
port omissions, transhipment costs, unhappy customers and so
on. [The new format] worked on paper but there were just so many
knock-on issues.”
Vancouver – where one ship waited six days – Long Beach,
Auckland and Sydney were regular problem ports.
In August the carriers took the decision to bite the bullet and add
a ninth ship, the ANL-operated 4253 TEU Debussy, which enables
all ships to alternate between the loops and brings the service
levels up to those promised, albeit some northbound transits have
elongated to certain customers’ dissatisfaction.
“We’re looking at that at the moment and we think we’ll have a
solution soon,” a representative says.
“We just couldn’t continue the way we were,” he says. “Adelaide
was missing out too often as dropping it was the only real way of
We’ve got to be mindful that we can’t
be running ships at full speed, especially
with IMO 2020 looming.
getting ships back on time at this end, and that’s no good for a
fortnightly service, it means a month between calls. We could cover
that via Melbourne but that’s not really a solution and just adds
costs and inconvenience. We’ve also dropped the Sydney double
calls, which were also suffering.
“We’ve got to be mindful that we can’t be running ships at full
speed, especially with IMO 2020 looming on 1 January and whoknows-what
fuel costs, and we have to be able to offer shippers the
certainty they require.
“The ships are the right size: they’re allocated out at about 3100
TEU and I think we’re averaging about 2900 TEU – southbound
we’ve been running at close to 95% utilisation for most of the year.
A couple of recent sailings have even had to roll 300-400 containers.
Replacing those last two MSK/HSD 3800s will work well.
“The ninth ship has solved the schedule problems and overall I
think the service is working pretty well.
“I certainly count the west coast re-work as a success.”
Long Beach, California, USA
HAPPY CAMPERS
As regular readers will know, it can be hard to find happy campers
in liner trades.
With the ANZ-North America routes ticking most boxes this
year, executives are preferring to ignore any possible snags in the
meat trades and enjoy the (wine) glass half full.
As a trade manager told DCN: “I’m certainly not presenting losses
to my bosses every week, so one really can’t ask for more … other
than a pay rise!”
Ungureanu Catalina Oana
30 October 2019
thedcn.com.au