As of early May, container rates across major east-west trade lanes over the Pacific continued to soften, but the rate floor has largely held thanks to one primary ocean carrier tactic: blank sailings. According to reports in the industry, carriers have withdrawn a significant number of scheduled sailings on the transpacific eastbound route to manage overcapacity and limit further pricing collapse. This has created a market where published rates remain relatively stable, but service reliability continues to erode.
The Shanghai–Los Angeles route rates declined only 1% recently and Shanghai–New York fell 3%. However, those in the industry note these rates are propped up almost entirely by schedule cancellations. Some carriers have dropped to a little more on spot quotes from China, while others—particularly Maersk on Asia–Europe lanes—are offering deeply discounted space to maintain utilization.
Asia–Europe rates have now declined for three consecutive weeks, with Shanghai–Rotterdam down 5% and Shanghai–Genoa down 4%. In parallel, MSC has quietly discontinued its Asia–Mediterranean Phoenix service, citing persistent scheduling issues.
Service Relevance in the Current Market
The disruption caused by blank sailings, especially on transpacific routes, has immediate implications for lead time variability, cost forecasting, and compliance timing.
While the blank sailing strategy has helped stabilize short-term rates for carriers, it continues to degrade overall schedule integrity across the transpacific and Asia–Europe corridors. You should anticipate the possibility of further blank sailings and work with Alba to plan routing, compliance, and landed cost strategies accordingly.
Another danger is that if vessels typically utilized on Transpac routes become indispensable on other trade lanes, when the potential crush of new orders arrives when tariffs have settled, there won’t be the capacity to accommodate the demand… Plan ahead with Alba to ensure you have the capacity you need, when you need it.
