Maersk & Hapag Shake Up Carrier Alliances
Maersk Line and Hapag Lloyd have this week announced a new collaboration that looks to have broken the mould of the existing carrier alliance structure.
The two major carriers are forming the new ‘Gemini Cooperation’ from February of next year, which will see them collaborate together on the major trade routes of Asia-Europe, Transatlantic, Asia-US, Asia-Middle East, Asia-Mediterranean and Middle East/India-Europe.
The pair will offer around 3.4m TEU of capacity aboard 290 vessels on 26 mainline services. Of that capacity, Maersk will be providing the lion’s share at 60%.
It had been widely expected that Maersk would be operating their own solo network when their much publicised split with MSC and the 2M Alliance comes to an end next year. However, their CEO has now said that Hapag Lloyd are “the ideal partner on our strategic journey”.
It is Hapag Lloyd’s involvement which has surprised many within the shipping industry, as they are currently members of THE Alliance (THEA), and according to some reports that carrier agreement is not due to expire until 2030.
As for the remaining THEA members – ONE, Yang Ming and HMM – it is unclear how they will be remodelling without Hapag Lloyd at this stage. The next few weeks or months will give us a much clearer picture of where the carrier landscape is heading and we will keep you updated with developments.
