PIL abandons Pacific market

Pacific International Lines (PIL) has announced it will be withdrawing from the Transpacific market as part of efforts to make its network more efficient.

In a statement, PIL said it will focus on its North-South route and strengthening its position in regions such as Africa, the Middle East/Red Sea, India Sub-Continent, Latin America and Oceania.

As a consequence of this realignment, PIL’s final Transpacific sailing will be in March 2020.

The Transpacific market, more commonly known as the Asia-North America route, is the busiest in the world, with approximately 26.5 million TEU passing along it annually.

By contrast, the North Europe/Mediterranean-East Coast South America, carries 1.6 million TEU a year and the North America-East Coast Latin America 1.2 million TEU.

In May 2019, Port Technology International (PTI) reported that COSCO, the third biggest container shipping line in the world, was considering a bid for PIL.