Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) announced a slack season program from January to June 2012 “in response to the forecasted change in demand on the Northeast Asia to Australia trade.”
The program will consist of blank sailings and slot swaps to remove an average capacity of about 16 percent, Hong Kong-based OOCL said in a corporate message released on December 7, 2011.
The main objective of the program is to reduce excess capacity to match the forecast demand level, even as the program will also “help minimize our carbon footprint by reducing emissions and fuel consumption,” OOCL said.
Meanwhile, in an earlier message, OOCL assured clients that the exit of MISC from the container shipping business by the end of June 2012 will not disrupt the multi-carrier Asia to Australia service (AAA consortium).
It said the AAA service “will continue to maintain the operation of the current two-loop services after MISC’s exit” under the combined operation of MOL, PIL, and OOCL.
“There will be no impact to the service coverage of AAA consortium for Australia to/from Asia and connections to/from other Intra Asia and East/West networks,” an OOCL online statement stressed on December 2, 2011.
