Maersk and MSC’s 2M alliance has announced several blank voyages for its trans-Pacific services as the recent shutdown of East Coast and Gulf Coast ports has led to continued congestion at U.S. East Coast ports.

“This situation has severely impacted port operations, resulting in delays in cargo processing times and an increase in vessels waiting at the port,” MSC said in a report. “This delay severely affects the ability of the vessels listed below to return to Asia in a timely manner to resume their rotations.”

The port strike on the East Coast of the United States ended after only three days, and due to the short duration of the strike, its impact was much less than feared, but nonetheless, the three-day strike did cause ships to queue up for berthing, which will have a negative impact on capacity supply.  It is expected to take 2-3 weeks to clear the backlog of ships and containers.

Drury’s weekly voyage tracking data shows that between Oct. 14 and Nov. 17, 69 flights were canceled on trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic and Asia-Europe routes, “for a total of 693 scheduled flights, a cancellation rate of 10 percent.”

“During this period, 58 per cent of empty flights will be on trans-Pacific eastbound routes, 26 per cent on Asia-Europe routes and 16 per cent on trans-Atlantic westbound routes,”