From the end of March, considerable changes to carriers and alliance schedules on the Asia-North Europe route will be implemented, resulting in longer average transit times as vessel sailing speeds continue to be reduced further.

The new schedules will mean that the average duration of a round trip service on the corridor will reach a record high of 11.3 weeks. Since 2007, round trip durations have increased gradually from the previous average of around 8 weeks.

The cause has primarily been due to slower sailing speeds to ease rising bunker prices and to reduce emissions. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) are introducing new low sulphur regulations with effect from January 2020, which means carriers have to reduce emissions by 85%.

The introduction of today’s mega ships has also had an impact on transit times. The average size of vessels have more than doubled since 2007 – from 7,000 teu to above 15,000 teu – which results in the need for longer port stays to load and unload.

The April schedule changes will be reflected in next week’s release of the new UniOcean Asia/Europe service directory, the most comprehensive schedule available on the market. It will also see the total capacity on the trade being uplifted by 8.3% to around 300,000 teu per week.

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