HAWAIIAN Jones Act carrier Matson has closed its China-California Express (CCX) loop ahead of the peak season, after spot rates on the tradelane collapsed with the easing of the Covid crisis, reports London's Loadstar.

Matson deployed three 2,900-4,250 TEU vessels on the CCX loop . It also operates the CLX and CLX+ loops between China and the US west coast and is confident it will continue to achieve a premium on current market rates, despite the weakening fundamentals.

Just last month, at the company's Q2 earnings call, Matson CEO Matt Cox was bullish about support for the premium service, which it launched in the third quarter of 2021, saying demand "remained solid".

He said the carrier expected to operate the CCX service "through the October peak season" and was optimistic that demand would be sufficient for the loop to "continue into 2023".

"We continue to believe our China service freight rates will be above pre-pandemic rate levels and significantly higher that the SCFI [Shanghai Containerised Freight Index] due to our differentiated, expedited ocean services," said Matson at the time.

Mr Cox told investors and analysts freight rates were declining in "an orderly manner", "not falling off a cliff" and that the carrier expects "a moderate peak season".

The last CCX sailing, by the 2,890-TEU Manukai, arrived at Long Beach on 20 September and the service has now been suspended.

Said Paris-based Alphaliner: "The closure of the CCX does not come as a surprise, since transpacific cargo demand has fallen notably during the past weeks.

"In view of China's upcoming Golden Week holiday in the first weeks of October, the main carriers active in the trade are expected to implement additional capacity cuts," said Alphaliner.