French container shipping group CMA CGM is shelving its Liberty Solo service, the smallest of the carrier's four services between north Europe and the US east coast, despite the transatlantic still being one of the few healthy trade lanes.

The carrier announced it will "reinforce" its transatlantic services this autumn, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce.

At the end of August, the ocean liner plans to add a weekly direct westbound call at Savannah to its Victory Bridge service from North Europe to the US South Atlantic, Gulf, and east coast of Mexico. The service uses five 4,200-TEU ships.

During the first half of the year, the company controlled an 8.7 per cent share of the North Europe-US east coast container trade, with 110,743 TEU transported. The carrier's transatlantic volume soared 66 per cent from a year earlier as its market share rose 5.5 per cent.

The Liberty Solo is operated by ships of 1,700 TEU and the service added a port call at Baltimore in May. The last two sailings before the service is suspended left Rotterdam on August 18, and from New York-New Jersey on August 24.