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Congestion-induced 'double sailings' cancel out Golden Week blanks

Deployed capacity on the transpacific and Asia-Europe trades during this year's Golden Week holiday was the highest on record, according to new analysis from Sea-Intelligence. Port congestion in Asia, caused by a succession of typhoons, led to vessel bunching at loading ports, and subsequently resulted in a series of "double sailings", which cancelled out carriers' blanking strategy during the holiday period when they typically look to skip voyages due to a lack of cargo sitting on Asia's docks "Double sailings are essentially two departures on a liner service in a week," analysts at Sea-Intelligence said. "Liner services work on weekly departure frequencies - ie, one vessel departs the origin region every week. "When vessels get delayed, they bunch up - the delayed departure that moved from week 1 to week 2 is now sailing along with the original week 2 departure, hence a 'double sailing'," the consultancy explained. This meant deployed capacity during the Golden Week period - which Sea-Intelligence defined as taking place between weeks 40 and 42, to account for the lag in inland transport work unable to take place because drivers were on holiday - was this year higher on the transpacific and Asia-Europe trades than ever before. For example, according to Sea-Intelligence, the Asia-US west coast trade would normally see less than 300,000 teu in weekly capacity deployed during the Golden Week holiday period, whereas this year it saw 393,000 teu of weekly capacity deployed. Meanwhile, between 2012 and 2019, the average deployed capacity during the Golden Week holiday period would see an 8% reduction on Asia-US west coast, a 6% reduction on Asia-US east coast, a 16% reduction on Asia-North Europe, and a huge 21% on the Asia-Mediterranean trade. However, this year, Asia-Mediterranean capacity during Golden Week was up 18%, compared with the rest of the third quarter, while the Asia-US east coast trade was up 15%, and the Asia-US west coast and Asia-North Europe routes were both up 4%. While this could suggest carriers have "abandoned the traditional seasonal capacity reductions", the analyst instead lays the blame on the number of "double sailings" this month and those scheduled for November, and which have reached historically high levels on all four of the major trades. "This massive influx of double sailings is a direct symptom of severe vessel bunching caused by ongoing port congestion and schedule unreliability in Asia. "Vessels that were originally scheduled to depart during Q3 were heavily delayed and subsequently cascaded into the October and November loading windows. "This then unnaturally inflates the baseline of active sailings for the week, which artificially increases deployed capacity, and mathematically suppresses the blanked capacity percentage - shipping lines have not necessarily abandoned their capacity management strategies for Golden Week in 2026; rather, their networks are simply too heavily congested with bunched vessels to execute those strategies effectively," Sea-Intelligence added. Underneath it all is, of course, the continuing poor schedule reliability that is making life increasingly difficult for shippers and their forwarders to plan accordingly, as noted by UK forwarder Metro Shipping. "Following China's Golden Week, around 95% of scheduled container sailings were expected to operate, suggesting relatively modest capacity withdrawals. "However, conditions vary considerably between Asia-Europe and transpacific trades. Carrier schedule adjustments, congestion and disrupted vessel rotations continue to affect reliability, even where overall capacity appears sufficient," it said today.

Navia Deepens Southeast Asia Reach With New Office in Johor Bahru

The company's second Malaysian location puts it on Singapore's doorstep and one of the world's busiest trade corridors. This week, Navia announced the opening of its freight forwarding office in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, continuing its expansion as a global player. This is its second location on the Malay Peninsula, its twelfth in APAC, and the next phase in its growth journey. The choice of Johor Bahru as a location was based on a few key factors: Singapore is on the doorstep, deeper coverage across Malaysia, and a relentless ambition for growth. "Our expansion has always followed our customers.... Johor Bahru is us continuing to back the core markets that matter to them." Johor Bahru sits minutes from Singapore, connected by the world's busiest land border crossing, with over 350,000 crossings a day (roughly four times the daily volume of San Diego-Tijuana's San Ysidro crossing, which the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics says is 87,569 crossings a day). A new rail link, opening later this year, will make that journey just five minutes. The state is also home to Port Tanjung Pelepas, the world's 15th-busiest seaport, handling over 14 million TEUs a year, and Senai International Airport. Since January 2025, the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) has enabled duty-free trade and a single permit for land cargo moving between the two countries, targeting RM260 billion (approximately S$81 billion) in GDP for the zone, with 7% annual growth by 2030 according to Johor state government predictions. In practice, that gives Navia customers a team with direct access to Singapore via sea and land. Take a shipment from Shanghai landing at Tanjung Pelepas: freight that once needed to clear through a third-party agent before reaching Singapore can now move under one Navia team, with one coordinated Navia solution, from origin port, to bonded storage, to final delivery. All of it is tracked with the same Critical Chain exception visibility and live reporting from the NaviaHub that Navia's customers already use every day. The new office extends Navia's coverage across Malaysia. Alongside its existing Penang office, the Johor Bahru team now places Navia near Port Tanjung Pelepas, where a significant share of its freight already moves through. The Johor Bahru office marks the second expansion Navia has made this year, following the launch of TCI Navia in China in August, another step in the company's growing footprint. "Our expansion has always followed our customers, not the other way round. We've been invested in Malaysia for seven years, and Johor Bahru is us continuing to back the core markets that matter to them. This is another step forward, not just for Malaysia but for what we're building right across the region. What excites me most is the talent we're adding on the ground and the capability we're bringing in-house, so customers get the full Navia ecosystem working for them as one team.", said Simon Borg, Group CEO of Navia. About Navia: Navia is a global freight forwarder and 3PL provider. Founded in Australia in 2003, Navia has grown into one of the largest independently-owned logistics providers in the market, with offices across Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United States. Being independently owned allows the Navia team to provide customers with the network and reach of a multi-national, coupled with the care and attention freight requires. All of this is backed by the NaviaHub proprietary platform, which gives customers real-time SLA reports and exception management down to the SKU-level. https://naviafreight.com Media Contact: Greg Amanatidis, Director of Marketing, [email protected]

Liege and Viracopos partner up to target cargo flights

Liege Airport and Viracopos International Airport have launched a new partnership they hope will attract new freighter services between Belgium and Brazil. The two airports have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an immediate focus on identifying shared commercial prospects and establishing a framework for regular engagement between the airports' business development teams. The partnership will combine customer targeting with market intelligence, joint promotional activity and discussions with potential airline partners, the airports said. Areas for consideration include "commercial incentives for interested operators and technical and operational studies to help assess opportunities for new all-cargo services". Frederic Brun, vice president for sales and marketing at Liege Airport, said: "By working with Viracopos, we can identify opportunities across Europe, Brazil and onward markets, combining our networks and specialist handling capabilities. "Our priority is to build relationships with airlines and forwarders that can support sustainable route development, while giving shippers efficient connections for pharmaceuticals, technology and other valuable cargo moving between these important trading regions in both directions." The airports see opportunities to implement more direct Europe-Brazil traffic while exploring connections for shipments travelling between Asia and Latin America through Liege. Of the verticals they will target, pharma "will be a priority", they said. Viracopos said the value of its pharmaceutical imports has increased by 43% in 2026 and the airport is building a dedicated cold warehouse that will double its pharmaceutical storage capacity. Maria Fan, chief commercial officer at Viracopos International Airport, explained: "Together, we intend to engage airlines, forwarders and shippers, understand their requirements and develop practical solutions. "We see particular potential in pharmaceuticals, technology and international e-commerce, where reliable handling and connectivity are essential to supporting our customers and their businesses." The airports added that technology shipments offer another "substantial opportunity" and pointed out that Viracopos accounts for 45% of Brazil's airborne high-tech imports. "Growth in digitalisation, artificial intelligence and cloud computing is increasing demand for data centres, supporting imports of server racks and associated equipment," the airports said in a press release. Viracopos also expects Brazil's REData tax regime to encourage further investment. The measure provides for a five-year suspension of federal taxes on qualifying data centre equipment acquisitions. Another target area is e-commerce, with an additional dedicated warehouse covering 20,000 sq m already operational at Viracopos, providing expanded X-ray inspection capabilities and direct apron access. "Closer integration between cargo operators and government agencies has also helped reduce customs bottlenecks at Viracopos," the airport said. The airports added that as part of the MoU they will establish a shared target list, exchange commercial insights and maintain regular calls and face-to-face meetings.