ZIM stops its ZEX service on transpacific route

Container ship of ZIM (Photo: YaakovNaumi/Flash90)

ZIM shipping line discontinued its eCommerce Xpress (ZEX) service, which was launched during the period of sudden high demand of the freight market in 2020, at the end of March.

The termination of ZEX means that the Israeli shipping line will no longer call at ports in Los Angeles and will return to their traditional markets in the Pacific Northwest and the US East Coast.

According to container shipping consultancy Linerlytica, ZEX's last sailing will be on March 30, 2023, when the 4,253-TEU Alexander Bay completes its journey in Busan.

ZEX was launched in June 2020 to meet growing demand on the transpacific route, due to increased logistics bottlenecks amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

ZEX was originally designed to call only at Yantian, Dachan Bay, Los Angeles with a round-trip time of 35 days, and used five 4,250 TEU container ships.

ZEX marks Zim's return to the Southwest Pacific service after first withdrawing from the service in 2004 as the carrier focuses primarily on the Pacific Northwest route on the US West Coast as well as its traditional mainline to the East Coast of the United States.

The successful launch of ZEX led to the introduction of two more Southwest Pacific services, Zim Southeast Asia eCommerce Xpress (ZX2) in March 2021 and Zim Central China eCommerce Xpress (ZX3) in May 2021. However, severe port congestion on the US West Coast forces ZIM to drop the ZX2 and ZX3 services in March 2022 and merge the modified ZEX service with calls to ports: Ningbo , Xiamen, Yantian, Los Angeles, Busan, Ningbo.

Confirming the end of ZEX service, a ZIM spokesperson told Container News, “ZEX, a premium service designed for e-commerce, has been suspended till further notice due to changing demand. We continuously review and adjust our services. These changes are part of our agile approach, as we are attentive to market dynamics.”

Read more:

• ZIM warns to stop sailing on transpacific route if rates fall too low

Source: Phaata.com (According to ContainerNews)

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