The container shipping world will wake up tomorrow to a new alliance structure, as Gemini Cooperation and Premier Alliance officially begin operations on 1 February. Meanwhile, Ocean Alliance remains the only grouping maintaining its existing format, while Geneva-based MSC has decided to continue as a standalone ocean carrier.
Gemini Cooperation
The ambitions of the new Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd alliance are high with both companies promising increased levels of schedule reliability. Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, said: “Together with our operating partner Maersk, we are focused on delivering on our 90% schedule reliability promise.”
The Gemini network aims to set new industry standards in terms of sustainability and support the companies’ decarbonization efforts. “Thanks to our effective hub & spoke operating system, we can deploy larger vessels and thus simultaneously optimize speed, reduce idling times, and thereby cut down on carbon emissions,” stated Habben Jansen, adding that all of this saves customers a lot of time and resources.
Around 340 container vessels will be phased in and be part of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s shared network with the first sailings taking place tomorrow (1 February), while more vessels are expected to gradually sail on the new schedules.
Johan Sigsgaard, Chief Product Officer of Ocean at Maersk, stated: “We are now ready to commence the phase-in of the new network. Over the last year, we have carefully planned this to ensure that all our customers experience a smooth transition into the new network. With its innovative design, we believe our customers will benefit from increased reliability, flexibility and more competitive products.”
The transition period is expected to last until late May, with vessels phasing into the new network, and out of the expiring agreements that Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have with other carriers. June will be the first full month in which the network is fully phased in with all vessels sailing on Gemini schedules.
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s shared network covers East/West trades and will consist of 29 ocean mainliner services supported by a network of 28 intraregional shuttle services.
Ocean Alliance
Ocean Alliance will now be the largest grouping in terms of market share and will have the widest market coverage this year, according to analysis from Linerlytica, an Asia-based container shipping consultancy.
Another major shipping consultancy Alphaliner reports that Ocean Alliance will deploy approximately 390 container vessels, with a total nominal capacity nearing 5 million TEUs.
Ocean Alliance is expected to hold a dominant position on the Transpacific trade with 15 sailings to the US West Coast and eight to the East Coast, according to Linerlytica data.
Premier Alliance
Premier Alliance, now comprising Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM, and Yang Ming, will cover major East-West trade routes, including Asia–North America West Coast, Asia–North America East Coast, Asia–Mediterranean, Asia–North Europe, and Asia–Middle East services.
Premier Alliance will cooperate with MSC, the world’s largest container line on a number of services. In particular, Premier Alliance and MSC have made some slot exchange agreements on nine services in Asia-Europe trade lanes.
Jeremy Nixon, CEO of ONE, commented: “Collectively the Premier Alliance and MSC, will be able to offer a very capable and extensive network of end-to-end port services to its customers from February 2025. We look forward to this new cooperation with MSC, and both collaborating on our respective joint operational expertise and combined network synergies.”
