The Port of Southampton welcomed the new Gemini Cooperation’s first UK arrival this month, as the MV Leonidio arrived ahead of its westbound Atlantic crossing to New Brunswick, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Maersk and Hapag Lloyd now jointly operate the new carrier alliance, which officially got underway from the 1st of this month. The partnership will predominantly be using Southampton for its Transatlantic services and has decided to use London Gateway for its services to and from Asia and the Middle East.
The alliance confirmed that it would not be operating any of its services through Felixstowe, in an announcement at the end of last year. The omission of the port from the Gemini schedules would have undoubtedly been a blow for the East Anglian port, which has been besieged by congestion issues during the past year.
While many European ports have been affected by congestion, Felixstowe has especially suffered due to high demand and capacity restrictions. Processing times have been getting slower and vessel waiting times have become longer, which have been anywhere between 10 and 14 days during recent times.
Felixstowe has long been considered the UK’s largest container port. However, a £1 billion investment to expand London Gateway was announced in October, which will theoretically see it overtake Felixstowe within the next five years.
Hopefully, the reduction in services through the port, along with next month’s two-three lull in vessel arrivals that follows 6/7 weeks behind Chinese New Year, will help Felixstowe address some of its congestion issues.
