The world's biggest container shipping company, Maersk Line, said on Monday it planned to expand its use of slow steaming on Asia-Europe routes and also to introduce it in the Pacific, Reuters reports. The statement by Maersk Line, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, follows its Feb. 17 announcement that it would remove 9 percent of its capacity from Asia-Europe trade lanes because overcapacity had knocked freight rates to unsustainably low levels.
Slow steaming, which means sailing at lower-than-normal speeds, cuts down on fuel consumption and tightens up the market by reducing available capacity as it takes longer for vessels to travel from port to port.
Slow steaming, which means sailing at lower-than-normal speeds, cuts down on fuel consumption and tightens up the market by reducing available capacity as it takes longer for vessels to travel from port to port.