STATISTICS from Sea-Intelligence and carriers show that shippers are facing an increasing number of blank and sliding sailings on trans-Pacific trades in December, with US West Coast services particularly hard hit.

Carriers are also skipping ports in both Asia and the United States in an effort to recover sailing schedules, reports IHS Media.

"Blank sailings have increased quite considerably on Asia-North America West Coast, from a weekly average of 7.7 per week through the first nine months of 2021, to an average of 13 blank sailings per week in weeks 39-50," Alan Murphy, chief executive and founder of Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis said.

"We're not seeing the same pattern to the US East Coast or on Asia-Europe," he added.

Sea-Intelligence data shows just one or two cancellations a week on services to the US East Coast and a slightly higher number on Asia-Europe trades.

Ports on the US West Coast, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, have been bedeviled by lengthy queues of container ships waiting to berth as a combination of labour shortages and landside issues create delays and congestion. The average wait at the LA/LB complex is now about three weeks.

Ocean Network Express is cancelling 29 trans-Pacific sailings that were due to depart mostly Asian ports in December, according to its latest schedule update on December 2. Of those, 22 are services to the US West Coast, including Vancouver and Tacoma. That compares with 20 cancellations in both November and October.

So far, ONE is cancelling nine trans-Pacific sailings in January, the carrier's latest schedule shows.

"These unfortunate blank positions are due to ongoing schedule delays," the carrier said in its update. "The delays are caused by continuous global terminal congestion related to the COVID-19 pandemic."

Sea-Intelligence so far forecasts an average of about six cancellations a week on the trans-Pacific in the first five weeks of 2022.

"These are sailings that have been blanked in the carriers' schedules or have been announced by the carriers, and there are likely going to be additional blank sailings announced as we get closer, and a few unscheduled or unannounced after the fact," Mr Murphy said.