Data through 2026-09-13 (13 September 2026)
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Carriers withdraw sailings on Asia to Europe and transpacific services

Carriers withdraw sailings on Asia to Europe and transpacific services. The disruption ran from 2020-04-01 (April 2020) to 2020-06-01 (June 2020), affecting Asia to North Europe, Asia to Mediterranean, Transpacific: Asia to US West Coast. No measured effect is published for this event; the effect section explains why.

Key facts

Started
2020-04-01 (April 2020)
Ended
2020-06-01 (June 2020)
Status
ended
Severity
2 Moderate
Scope
global
Chokepoints
None
Ports
None
Confidence
medium: The cancelled services and weeks come from Maersk's own customer advisories, but the wider scale of the withdrawals across carriers and alliances rests on trade press reporting, and no single start or end date was announced.
First reported
2020-03-27 (27 March 2020)
  • Severity basis: No rubric closure criterion applies. Rated at level 2, the moderate band, because whole service loops on three lanes were withdrawn for a quarter without any port or chokepoint stoppage.

What happened

During the second quarter of 2020 container lines withdrew scheduled sailings on Asia to Europe and transpacific services as demand fell in the coronavirus pandemic. Maersk told customers on 2020-03-31 (31 March 2020) that its AE6 and AE7 Asia to North Europe loops would each miss several westbound and eastbound departures between weeks 16 and 25, on top of an announced suspension of the AE2 service for the quarter. On 2020-04-10 it announced further cancelled transpacific sailings to the United States west coast. Reporting at the time described the 2M partners Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company withdrawing whole Asia to Europe loops for the quarter. The withdrawals were announced as service cancellations rather than dated stoppages at any port.

Measured effect

No measured effect is published for this event. The disruption was too small or too imprecisely dated to separate from normal variation in a port-level daily series.

The withdrawals are dated to months and to schedule weeks across three lanes rather than to a stoppage at any port or chokepoint, so the daily port series cannot separate them from the wider fall in demand.

Timeline

  1. Trade press reports that carriers are cancelling sailings on transpacific and Europe services because demand has fallen, with production in China largely restarted while consuming economies are shut down. [s3]
  2. Trade press reports that the 2M partners have withdrawn two Asia to Europe and Mediterranean loops for the whole second quarter. [s4]
  3. Maersk tells customers that its AE6 and AE7 Asia to North Europe services will miss departures in weeks 16 to 25, on top of the announced suspension of the AE2 service for the second quarter. [s1]
  4. Maersk announces further cancelled transpacific sailings, including a week 17 departure from Nansha to the United States west coast and a week 20 return departure from Prince Rupert. [s2]

Cause

Maersk told customers it was cancelling sailings because demand had fallen further during the coronavirus pandemic, and that it was matching its network to reduced volumes. Attributed by: Maersk. [s1] [s2]

Resolution

2020-06-30 (30 June 2020): The announced withdrawals covered the second quarter of 2020, after which carriers restored the suspended loops. No single dated end to the programme was announced, so the end of the quarter is used. [s1] [s4]

Corrections

No corrections to this record as of 2026-09-16 (16 September 2026).

Sources

  1. [s1] Maersk, COVID-19 Blanking Announcement - Asia - North Europe Services, published 2020-03-31 (31 March 2020), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (official)
  2. [s2] Maersk, Additional Blanking Announcement on Transpacific Services, published 2020-04-10 (10 April 2020), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (official)
  3. [s3] Supply Chain Dive, Ocean carriers blank sailings on Transpacific, European routes as importer demand drops, published 2020-03-27 (27 March 2020), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
  4. [s4] Supply Chain Dive, 2M Alliance announces blank sailings on 21% on Asia-Europe trade, published 2020-03-30 (30 March 2020), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)