Dive Brief:

• Two major shipping lines announced new Transpacific services in order to fill the capacity gap left by Hanjin's recent filing for receivership, American Shipper first reported.
• The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) announced a new "MAPLE" service, wherein six vessels of 5,000 TEU capacity will call on six ports, with the first two sailings arriving in Long Beach, CA, Yantian, China Shanghai, China and Busan, South Korea. 
• Maersk Line also announced a weekly service between those four ports, with the first service scheduled for September 15. Maersk will operate six vessels of 4,000 TEU capacity.

Dive Insight:

Before it filed for receivership, Hanjin handled roughly 240,000 TEUs in Transpacific trade, according to JOC. The shipping services called on 13 ports in the U.S. and Canada and over a dozen East Asian ports several times a month.

So as the capacity constraints following the world's 7th largest shipper's collapse begin to be felt, other cargo carriers are beginning to fill the gap. Maersk and MSC's weekly services will provide roughly 54,000 TEUs in additional shipping capacity. Meanwhile, American Airlines announced it would begin a daily cargo flight between Hong Kong and Los Angeles to help transport commodities, American Shipper reports.

The new services, however, are limited in scope and will not fully replace Hanjin's broad Transpacific services.

Although Yantian, Shanghai, Busan and Long Beach are major ports in Asia and North America, the Korean shipper serviced various, potentially more convenient ports — including the Port of Oakland and East Coast ports. As a result, despite the new services spot freight rates at these locations will likely remain at elevated levels for the time being.