Maersk Lays-Up Triple-E
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Maersk Line has laid-up one of its 18,000-teu Triple E containerships. It cannot rule out that it will have to anchor another of its massive Triple E ships in connection with the Chinese New Year.
The Danish carrier will anchor Triple- E 18,000 teu vessel for at least six weeks as a consequence of the 2M alliance’s blanked sailings programme between Asia and Europe.
Idling a Triple-E evidenced how serious the oversupply situation had become on the tradelane, not least because carriers normally endeavour to keep their largest ships and most expensive assets active.
The carrier’s parent was obliged to issue a profit warning last week due to an unexpected $600m shortfall in the container line’s full-year profit forecast, which it blamed on a “significant drop in rates”.
The crisis plaguing container liner services has hit the charter market very hard across all sizes of ships