SHIPPING lines are planning to pull more ships from the Asia-Europe trade in anticipation of a flat peak season and falling freight rates, International Freighting Weekly (IFW) reports.

In the lead up to the second half of the year, carriers signalled their intention of imposing peak season surcharges in the third quarter, but few, if any, will make good their threat.

Birmingham-based forwarder, FCL UK director Purvinder Tesse, said rates on the trade have already been dropping over the past eight weeks as extra shipping capacity has come on stream.

"This has been further affected by the lack of a peak season," said the forwarder. "We have therefore been warned that withdrawals would begin from October 12.

The lines hope that if they cut capacity now, rates will remain buoyant until after Chinese New Year [February 3]," he said.

Another forwarder told IFW that industry insiders believe that much of the tonnage that has been injected into the trade over the course of the year will be removed.

Despite the reduction in supply, ship lay-ups are not expected to reach the record highs of 2009 with carriers reportedly opting to idle vessels for one of two roundtrips instead. This will enable the lines to quickly deploy these vessels if demand is higher than expected.