European exporters face having their shipments to Asia disrupted for up to six weeks after a raft of container lines stopped accepting cargo bookings this week in an effort to clear a backlog of freight at European ports.
Maersk, the world's largest container line, together with French rival CMA CGM, confirmed they had frozen cargo bookings on eastbound services from Northern Europe to Asia. Other carriers, including Tung-family-controlled Orient Overseas Container Line, Cosco Container Lines (Coscon) and China Shipping Container Lines, did not respond to requests for comment.
South Korea's Hanjin Shipping said it was still taking cargo reservations but it could not comment about other members of its Green Alliance, which includes Coscon and Taiwan's Yang Ming Marine Transport.
Shipping executives said the problem had been caused by strong export demand from Europe to Asia since the beginning of this year, coupled with cutbacks in shipping capacity as carriers cut or merged services to save costs.
A senior executive from one international logistics company said: 'I can confirm that some carriers have put a halt to eastbound bookings due to a backlog of cargo as a result of skipped sailings and capacity withdrawal. Maersk is in the forefront.
'The situation is made worse by carriers preferring to get their stacks of empty containers back to Asia to load them up with high-revenue freight, following rate increases.'
Current freight rates from Asia to Europe are about US$1,500 per teu (20-foot equivalent unit) but rates from Europe to Asia are much lower, reflecting the lower value of the cargo, mainly scrap material, exported to Asia.