Posted on April 28, 2025
The US tariff war is continuing to disrupt container shipping, with a significant uptick in blank sailings on Transpacific routes reported over the past week.
According to new data from maritime consultancy Sea-Intelligence, this escalation reflects both weakening demand and rapid operational adjustments by carriers.
“The impact of the trade war has caused many shippers to pause, or outright cancel, shipments,” said Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence.
“This in turn reduces demand for capacity on container vessels, to which carriers respond by cancelling sailings.”
Data from Sea-Intelligence illustrates a steep rise in blanked capacity on the Asia–North America East Coast trade.
In week 12 of 2025, there were no blank sailings scheduled for the period between 7 April and 12 May. However, by week 15, 35 per cent of the planned capacity for the week starting 5 May had been cancelled.
This figure rose to 42 per cent by week 16, representing a seven percentage point increase in just one week.
A similar development has occurred on the Asia–North America West Coast route. For the week commencing 28 April, blank sailings increased from 13 per cent in week 15 to 28 per cent by week 16.
“This level of escalation in blanked capacity illustrates a dramatic change in the market,” continued Murphy.
“Partly from the perspective of the magnitude of the blank sailings, which are more akin to what we tend to see seasonally following Chinese New Year in January/February and Chinese Golden Week in October. And partly from the perspective that many of these blank sailings have been announced with very limited advance warning to the shippers.”
In a recent analysis, Sea-Intelligence reported that the Gemini Cooperation’s shuttle services significantly boosted overall schedule reliability, reaching 98.4 per cent in February.
