G6 shipping lines: Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, OOCL, APL, MOL and HMM are cancelling planned sailings between January and February 2013 on Asia-Europe-Middle East trade lanes ahead of forecast lower demand over the festive season.

A report by Alphaliner said the move is aimed at removing capacity after the New Year and the post-Lunar New Year holidays, which falls this year on February 10-11, amid weak cargo traffic on the Asia-North Europe trades.

The cancelled sailings are as follows: Loop 1, MOL Courage which was scheduled to depart on January 9 from Tokyo and depart on January 20 in Singapore.

Loop 6, NYK Adonis, expected to depart on Febuary 18 from Kaohsiung and depart Singapore on February 26; and Loop 7, OOCL Asia which was expected to depart on Febuary 11 from Qingdao and on February 23 from Singapore.

The Far East-Mediterranean EUM service operated by the OOCL Tokyo, which was due to depart on February 17 from Busan and on March 2 from Singapore; and the ABX service with the OOCL New York expected to depart on January 4 from Ningbo and on January 13 from Singapore.

The MOL Proficiency's sailing from Ningbo on January 25 and from Singpore on February 3 has been cancelled, as well as, the OOCL Chicago sailing that was scheduled to depart from Ningbo on February 15 and from Singapore on February 24.