CMA CGM Group has decided to postpone its project to deploy 18,000 TEU-capacity vessels on Transpacific market trade.
The much-anticipated launch of a weekly service with six mega-ships which was planned for the end of May has been delayed in order to optimise the use of its fleet.
The decision also comes as the company is rolling out an alliance with China’s Cosco Group and other rivals.
French container shipping major has now signed a deal with COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Line and Orient Overseas Container Line on creation of a new alliance, dubbed the Ocean Alliance.
Analysts say CMA CGM’s new partners would not have welcomed the addition of more capacity on a route where they’re already struggling to generate profits.
With the total fleet now reaching more than 20 million TEU, the overcapacity in the industry is at a point where the vessels needs to adopt higher levels of capacity management and scrap idle ships.
In total, six 18,000 TEU ships were planned to join the company’s Pearl River Express service on the trade, those being: CMA CGM Bougainville, CMA CGM Kerguelen, CMA CGM Georg Forster, CMA CGM Vasco de Gama, CMA CGM Zheng He and CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin.
CMA CGM since late December has been running pilot calls of the 18,000-TEU Benjamin Franklin to different terminals in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle, and those visits could continue.