Maersk Essen diversion could eat into supplies for LG Electronics, Puma

The A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S Essen, which suffered a loss of about 750 containers during an eastbound trans-Pacific sailing, has been rerouted to the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, Splash247 reports, due to congestion at the port of Los Angeles where it was originally headed for. There have been a string of such losses recently, the worst being the ONE Apus as discussed in Panjiva's research of Dec. 4, 2020, with around 1,800 containers lost and many more damaged.

That may add to pressure for limitations on the loading of ultralarge container vessels which by their nature are stiffer structures than smaller vessels which both make them more stable in normal seas but more vulnerable to the strongest storms, Loadstar reports.

The Maersk Essen had previously called at Xiamen, Yantian and Hong Kong in China as well as Cai Mep (Vung Tau) in Vietnam before its Pacific crossing. Panjiva's data shows the Maersk Essen had made three visits to U.S. ports in 2020 with unloadings in February, May and September with an average 12,500 TEUs unladen at the port of Los Angeles, Panjiva's data shows.

The unloading process could take a significant amount of time, after which the containers will need to be reloaded for transportation back from Lazaro Cardenas to Los Angeles. For example, Ocean Network Express Pte. Ltd. stated that 277 boxes were removed from the 14,000 TEU Apus between Dec. 11, 2020, and Jan. 19.

Users of Maersk's services, excluding freight forwarders, on the Essen in 2020 were led by 330 TEUs of washing machines by FNS, likely for LG Electronics Inc. Other electronics importers using the vessel were 200 TEUs of televisions for China Electronics Corp.' TPV and 42 TEUs of televisions for Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

There's also exposure in the apparel industry with footwear firms PUMA SE and Wolverine World Wide Inc. shipping 201 TEUs and 145 TEUs, respectively, while there were also 154 TEUs of assorted apparel shipped for Macy's Inc.

Christopher Rogers is a senior researcher at Panjiva, which is a business line of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc. This content does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Links are current at the time of publication. S&P Global Market Intelligence is not responsible if those links are unavailable later.