Green Worldwide’s Week 38 freight update (16 Sep 2026) reports that carrier capacity cuts accelerated ahead of China’s Golden Week. Announced blank sailings for Weeks 38 through 41 rose nearly 56% week on week, from 39 to 70 cancellations. Across the broader Weeks 38-42 window, Drewry expects 79 blank sailings among 721 scheduled sailings, about 11% of planned East-West departures.
By trade, Transpacific eastbound services account for roughly 52% of announced cancellations, Asia-North Europe/Mediterranean about 33%, and Trans-Atlantic about 15%. Separately, the same update notes Hapag-Lloyd average waits of about 5-11 days at Shanghai (by vessel size and service), 3-6 days at Ningbo, and about 3-4 days for larger vessels at Yantian, with carriers still using omissions and rotation changes to recover schedules.
Green Worldwide also flags that Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s Gemini alliance is expanding Suez returns for AE5, AE11, AE12 and ME2, with initial westbound transitions from 19 Sep. Shorter transit is possible on those loops, but the carriers still tie future changes to regional security conditions.