Industry news

With China's National Day Golden Week still a month away, carriers' capacity adjustment plans are already landing. Hapag-Lloyd has issued two consecutive announcements covering its Asia–Europe and Asia–North America networks for the holiday period: three blank sailings on the Europe trades with four alternative departures listed, and three cancelled sailings on the North America trades with substitute routings maintaining port coverage. Add the earlier blank-sailing programs from Maersk and MSC, and a full-scale, multi-trade capacity reconfiguration around Golden Week is now underway.

Europe Trades: Three Sailings Cancelled, Four Alternatives Listed

According to Hapag-Lloyd's customer notice issued on 20 August, three Asia–Europe sailings will be withdrawn: the NE2 service voyage 641W on the Asia–North Europe trade (Shanghai, week 41, originally departing 10 October); the SE3 service voyage 640W on the Asia–Mediterranean trade (Qingdao, week 40, originally departing 28 September); and the SE1 service voyage 641W, also Asia–Mediterranean (Ningbo, week 41, originally departing 8 October).

In response, Hapag-Lloyd listed four alternative departures: on North Europe, NE3's Maersk Cambridge V.641W (Shanghai, departing 6 October) and NE1's Al Nefud V.640W (Shanghai, departing 10 October); on Mediterranean, SE4's Berlin Maersk V.640W (Qingdao, departing 1 October) and SE3's Mayview Maersk V.641W (Ningbo, departing 12 October).

But the alternatives list deserves a careful read. The notice does not pair each alternative with a specific withdrawn voyage, nor does it confirm that space has already been secured for affected cargo — these are options, not locked-in solutions. The timing gaps matter more: the Qingdao Mediterranean alternative sails only on 1 October, three days later than originally planned and already day one of the holiday; the Ningbo Mediterranean alternative slides from week 41 to week 42 on 12 October, four days late, meaning inland collection bookings, delivery windows, and onward connections keyed to the original week all need to be rearranged.

North America Trades: Three Sailings Cancelled, US1 Provides Cover

In late August, Hapag-Lloyd issued a second notice covering Far East–North America services for Golden Week. Three transpacific sailings are affected: the WC2 service will skip the Guthorm Maersk 640E sailing (originally departing Shanghai on 10 October), though the Xingang–Qingdao–Pusan rotation remains in place; the US East Coast US2 service will omit the Navios Unison 641E sailing (originally departing Ningbo on 7 October); and the AA7 service will drop the Wan Hai A13 sailing (originally departing Ningbo on 1 October).

To cover the US2 gap, Hapag-Lloyd will provide alternative coverage via the US1 service: Maersk Shams is scheduled to depart Haiphong, Vietnam, on 2 October and make an additional call at Norfolk, US. The North America approach mirrors the Europe one — not a wholesale shutdown, but "blank and backfill," keeping main ports covered through substitute sailings and temporary extra calls.

This Year's Holiday Calendar Is Tighter Than Usual

The 2026 calendar deserves special attention: the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 25–27 September as a standalone three-day holiday, and National Day Golden Week runs 1–7 October. Between the two sit exactly three working days: 28, 29, and 30 September.

Those three days are this year's densest pre-holiday shipping window. The cancelled Qingdao SE3 640W sailing was scheduled to depart on 28 September — the very first of those three days. Its replacement sails 1 October, meaning factory handovers, trucking capacity, and export documentation support for Qingdao cargo must now be arranged inside the holiday environment. Even where terminal operations continue, the scarcity of factory, trucking, and customs resources is a real constraint.

One more calendar detail: Saturday 10 October is a designated make-up working day in mainland China, which eases some of the friction for cargo opting for the same-day alternative (such as Shanghai's NE1 Al Nefud) — but local trucking, terminal, customs, and documentation arrangements still need case-by-case confirmation.

Beyond Hapag-Lloyd: An Industry-Wide Golden Week Reconfiguration

Hapag-Lloyd's notices are a microcosm of an industry-wide adjustment. Maersk has already announced temporary transpacific changes for the holiday: TP8 voyage 640E blanked (Busan, 9 October) and 644W blanked (Los Angeles, 1 November), TP12 voyage 641E blanked (Ningbo, 9 October) and 647W blanked (Newark, 18 November), plus Far East–Europe adjustments and a suspension of the A04 intra-Asia service in week 41.

MSC's program is larger still: capacity adjustments on Asia–Europe across weeks 39–41, covering Mediterranean JADE (week 39) and DRAGON (week 41) sailings, and multiple North Europe withdrawals across the SWAN, BRITANNIA, and ALBATROS services — six blanked sailings in total. The carriers' logic is identical: with expected demand falling and cargo-handling staff reduced over the holiday, rebuild the network in advance to "minimize the impact on customers around Golden Week" — while also holding the supply-side initiative in the ongoing rate game.

A Practical Checklist for Shippers and Forwarders

For companies with Europe or US shipments planned in the coming weeks, a few things need doing immediately: first, check whether any booked sailing is on the cancellation list and confirm the specific alternative and its connections; second, recalculate cut-offs and departure dates — alternatives generally sail three to four days later than the withdrawn voyages, and post-holiday delivery commitments need re-planning; third, watch the 28–30 September window, the only three working days between the holidays — slots and trucking capacity for the final pre-holiday wave will be extremely tight; fourth, for cargo already in or heading to the terminal, confirm Golden Week depot operations and gate arrangements with terminals and carriers in advance.

Golden Week blank sailings happen every year — but in today's market of elevated rates and tight capacity, the cost impact of a single cancelled sailing on shippers has been amplified several times over. Building contingency plans two weeks early beats hunting for a ship at the last minute.

Disclaimer: Data in this article comes from public channels and is for industry analysis reference only; it does not constitute any decision-making advice. Actual freight rates are subject to carriers' official quotations.