SIMIC

THE Alliance, with Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming Marine Transportation as partners, which will become the Premier Alliance from next February, has struck a slot exchange deal with the world's largest container line, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).

From next year there is set to be the biggest overhaul in liner alliances in a decade, with MSC ditching Maersk in the 2M vessel sharing agreement to largely go it alone, and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd subsequently exiting THE Alliance to join the Danish carrier in what will be called the Gemini Cooperation.



The liner switches had left the remaining members of the all-Asian THE Alliance as the smallest grouping on the main east-west trades, according to Singapore's Splash 247.



On Monday, the three Asian carriers reaffirmed they will remain partners for at least another five years through to the end of the decade, while unveiling a new branding, Premier Alliance.



"Collectively this new tripartite alliance will offer strong, reliable and highly dependable end-to-end direct port container services to its customers on both the transpacific and Asia-Europe trades," said Jeremy Nixon, CEO of ONE.



More headline-grabbing, however, is the news that the three carriers have negotiated a slot exchange deal with MSC on the Asia-Europe trades on nine services, helping plug the gap in size.



MSC revealed to clients the same day that the make-up of its standalone services come February next year, detailing how it will operate on five east-west trades with 34 loops.



"This announcement represents an important milestone in the evolution of our global network and the vision of MSC's founding family," Soren Toft, MSC's CEO said.



MSC, led by the Aponte family, has been on a remarkable fleet build-up campaign over the past four years as it bids to go it alone. This has seen it order more than two million slots of newbuilds and acquire close to 400 second-hand ships, surpassing Maersk as the world's largest carrier at the start of 2022.



In the wake of Hapag-Lloyd's departure from THE Alliance, the Asian trio of HMM, ONE and Yang Ming have been canvassing potential new partners.



A senior executive at Taiwan's Wan Hai Lines admitted recently that his company had been approached to join a shipping alliance, without revealing which grouping had made the approach.



From February next year, the main east-west trades will see MSC largely operating solo, the Premier Alliance brand commence, the Gemini Cooperation start, while existing liner group Ocean Alliance, made up of CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen and OOCL, has agreed to continue their vessel-sharing agreement until the end of March 2032.