...Less Freight, More Filling

Shipping companies Hyundai Merchant Marine, APL, and MOL (part of New World Alliance) will remove one weekly string of vessels, each averaging 3,960 TEUs, from their Pacific Southwest service in July 2011 due to slowing demand for retail merchandise and reductions in inventory replenishment in the US. Other New World Alliance companies will adjust remaining spaces to meet any increase in demand. The shippers assert reduced demand and soft prices are to blame, even though the late summer to fall period is the busiest time of the year in trans-Pacific trade lanes.