Maersk Line has confirmed a move to abort feeder services to and from 10 Chinese ports as part of an overall effort to reduce costs, amid the sluggish container shipping market.
Maersk Line, the world’s largest container line, announced that shipment services would be stopped in the coming few weeks at the ports of Chizhou, Luzhou, Yingkou, Jinzhou, Rizhao, Yueyang, Lijiao, Taiping, Jiaoxin and old Nansha.
The container line, a unit of Denmark’s shipping conglomerate AP Moller-Maersk, said it has been impacted by historically low freight rates in the first half of this year, and the oversupply market continues to witness more new and larger ships being added.
The 10 ports in China are currently served by feeder vessels that move goods to larger ports where bigger containerships will take over and transport the cargoes to international ports mostly in Europe and the US.
Maersk Line stated that it would prefer to focus on ports that offer better growth prospects and opportunities for its customers, especially during the current challenging operating environment.
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