In late February, members of the OCEAN Alliance (OA), CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Evergreen and OOCL, announced the extension of their partnership agreement for five more years. Solidifying this alliance provides some stability in the shipping sector, that has seen other alliances restructured or dissolved recently.
The new agreement begins in April and outlines:
- 5 million TEUs committed
- Capacity on routes from Asia to Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and North America’s coasts.
NEW PARTNERSHIP TAKES THE CROWN AS LARGEST OF ITS KIND
With a total fleet of 321 ships, the OA is next in line for the title of largest carrier group once the 2M alliance between Maersk and MSC dissolves in 2025.
CMA CGM stated, “CMA CGM and its partners are stepping up coordination and adapting the rotations” to account for the impacts of the Red Sea. Increases in transit times and fickle schedules due to rerouting around southern Africa are the main impacts the OA is hoping to mitigate.
GEMINI COOPERATION FORMING IN 2025
In January of this year, Maersk and Hapag Lloyd announced the Gemini Cooperation (GC) partnership which will start in February 2025. The new partnership will utilize a fleet of 290 vessels with a 3.4 million TEU capacity. To form the GC, Hapag Lloyd will be leaving THE Alliance which consists of Ocean Network Express (ONE), Yang Ming and HMM.
RESULTING INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Once all agreements are officially in place, total capacities and global market share will sort out as shown below:
- MSC (standalone) – 5.5 million TEUs – 19.9% market share
- OCEAN Alliance – 4.5 million TEUs – 29% market share
- Gemini Cooperation – 3.4 million TEUs – 21.6% market share
- THE Alliance – 3.1 million TEUs – 11.6% market share
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