Maersk announced on January 17 that starting from February 2025, Maersk plans to enter into a long-term operational cooperation plan called Gemini with Hapag-Lloyd. This new collaborative plan aims to provide customers with high-quality container liner services through a flexible and interoperable operating network and high-accuracy schedules. The new Gemini partnership between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will cover seven major trade routes: Asia-US West, US East, Northern Europe, Mediterranean, Middle East, Middle East-Europe and Transatlantic. The service plan involves 26 main lines and is operated by about 290 ships. 60% of this is invested by Maersk and 40% by Hapag-Lloyd.
It is expected that when the overall cooperation is fully implemented in the future, the punctuality rate of shipping schedules will exceed 90%. Benefiting from the world’s leading port-to-port connectivity on major trade channels, the transportation cycle is improved and customers receive better services. In view of the launch of the new collaboration plan, Hapag-Lloyd will withdraw from THE Liner Alliance on January 31, 2025. Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company announced in January 2023 that they would terminate their 2M Liner Alliance cooperation in January 2025. In 2024, the two parties will properly handle the transition from the existing liner alliance to the new collaboration. At the same time, the services provided by both parties to customers within the current alliance will not be affected. Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said Hapag-Lloyd is the ideal partner for their strategic development. This partnership will help them provide more flexible services to their customers. This will help them enhance comprehensive logistics services to meet customer needs.
Hapag-Lloyd withdraws from THE Alliance, which has suffered a major impact. The agreement represents a major shift for Maersk, which has said that its integrated service integrator strategy is not suitable for ship sharing, which will undoubtedly have an impact on Hapag-Lloyd’s THE alliance partners ONE, Yang Ming and HMM. The industry was surprised by this cooperation announcement, especially since MSC CEO Sorrentoft had stated that Maersk was the initiator of the 2M split and made it clear that it would not join the new ship-sharing agreement. In a press release, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen made it clear that the company has no intention of becoming a logistics integrator. He emphasized that this move does not represent a change in Hapag-Lloyd’s strategic direction. The company will still focus on liner shipping and the closely related terminal and inland business.
The global economy has been relatively sluggish after the epidemic, and there have been reorganizations and different changes among various alliances. Shippers should pay attention to these news and policy changes to prevent their transportation plans from being greatly affected and ultimately leading to shipment failure.
