Sea Lead Shipping has suspended its service from the Far East to the West US. This comes after other new long-haul carriers pulled out of such services due to a sharp drop in freight demand, while service in the US East was also questioned.

Singapore- and Dubai-based Sea Lead initially focused on the Asia-Persian Gulf route, but like several other regional lines, it entered trans-Pacific operations in August 2021 when pandemic-related logistical bottlenecks pushed long-haul rates pushed to historical highs.

A Sea Lead spokesman said: “Like other shipping lines, Sea Lead is closely monitoring market changes and their impact on our business and customers. With this in mind, recent adjustments to our service network have been made which we believe will provide More choice and closely reflect changing customer needs.” Service to the West of the United States has been “suspended,” according to a spokesperson.

A Sea Lead spokesperson explained: “We have modified this service and continue to offer options via the Suez Canal. This enables us to offer more options to our customers from China, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and the Mediterranean to the US East, And provide eastbound capacity for U.S. shippers.”

Sea Lead said its focus remained on “renewing and expanding the schedules of our services, with particular emphasis on schedule reliability”. At the same time, it is “exploring new strategic partners to expand the company’s influence in new markets”.

A TS Lines source said: “We are making our last shipments to Europe and the US east coast and are expected to exit these routes in March. Cargo volumes and freight rates have dropped so much that it doesn’t make sense to continue.”

It is worth noting that after the British-based shipping company Allseas Shipping (which established a shipping company in June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy at the end of October) terminated its service on the Asia-Europe route in September 2022, it will enter into Asia-Europe cooperation in March 2021 Antong Holdings (Antong Holdings) and China United Shipping (CU Lines) on the route will terminate the ship-sharing agreement in December 2022, break up amicably, and withdraw from the Asia-Europe route.

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