Thursday, March 30, 2023
HomeContainersMaersk, MSC to end alliance from 2025

Subscribe

To our FREE newsletter
Get all the latest maritime news delivered straight to your inbox.

Maersk, MSC to end alliance from 2025

Denmark’s Maersk and Swiss-based MSC, the world’s largest container shipping companies, said on Wednesday they had agreed to end a vessel sharing alliance in January 2025, allowing them to pursue individual strategies.

The 2M alliance was introduced in 2015 to cope with a glut of ships and weak demand, and to ensure competitive and cost-efficient operations on main shipping routes from Asia to Europe, as well as across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Both companies saw the alliance as a way to manage more capacity after purchasing new mega-ships.

More recently, MSC responded to rising shipping rates caused by pandemic-related delays and bottlenecks by increasing the size of its fleet, while Maersk has kept its fleet size mostly steady.

“Today, we have a much different strategy, where we more look at how to integrate container shipping at sea with our land-based logistics business,” Maersk’s head of ocean shipping Johan Sigsgaard told Reuters in an interview.

“Operating our own network gives us more flexibility and allows us to connect our ships exactly where we want,” he said.

Maersk expects to be able to deliver ocean shipping at the same scale when the partnership with MSC ends without rising the cost of moving each container at sea, Sigsgaard said.

Shares in the company fell after the announcement and were trading 3.6% lower at 1103 GMT.

MSC said in a statement that “we continue to strengthen and modernize our fleet, providing us with the scale we need for the most comprehensive ocean and short-sea shipping network in the market.”

MSC, privately owned by the Aponte family, overtook Maersk as the world’s biggest container in 2021. Both companies hold market share of around 17%.

“We have been fighting fiercely over customers and market share the last eight years. I don’t see increased competition as a result of this,” Sigsgaard said.

[reuters]

Related Posts

Video

Finance & Economy
Shipping News
Ports

TORM announces secondary public offering of Class A common shares

TORM announced the commencement of a secondary public offering of 5,000,000 of the Company’s Class A common shares by OCM Njord Holdings S.à r.l.,...

Lomar Appoints Marius Bujor As Technical Director

Lomar Shipping, the shipping subsidiary of the Libra Group, has announced the appointment of Marius Bujor as its new Technical Director. Based in the...

EXMAR Reports Improved 2022 Results

During its meeting of 28 March 2023, the Board of Directors of EXMAR reviewed the results for the year ending 31 December 2022. HIGHLIGHTS 2022 ·...

Carnival Corp Posts Smaller-Than-Expected Quarterly Loss

Cruise operator Carnival Corp on Monday reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss and beat estimates for revenue, helped by resilient demand for leisure travel, higher...

Eva Birgitte Bisgaard steps down as chief commercial officer at Maersk Tankers

Eva Birgitte Bisgaard is stepping down from her role as chief commercial officer at Maersk Tankers. Christian M. Ingerslev, chief executive officer of Maersk Tankers,...

Wartsila sees role for ethanol in fragmented bunker fuel landscape

Wartsila is seeing a potential role for ethanol in the shipping industry’s multi-fuel future,...

Baltic index ticks up on firm demand for larger vessels

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index edged up on Wednesday on higher rates...

Baltic index drops to a near 3-week low on lower vessel demand

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk...

Baltic index falls on lower vessel demand

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk...

Global Goods Trade Softening from 2022’s Record Level

International commerce soared to a record of $32 trillion in 2022, but goods trade...

APM Terminals to double capacity in Rotterdam port

APM Terminals, a subsidiary of Danish shipping company Maersk MAERSKb.CO, plans to double its capacity at Rotterdam Port, a spokesperson for the company said...

APM Terminals announces strategic partnership in Vietnam

APM Terminals engages in a strategic partnership with Vietnamese HATECO group for a project to develop two new deep-water berths at Lach Huyen port...

Russia-Bound Containers Stuck At Antwerp Port For Over A Year

Five Russia-bound containers from India’s Jindal Stainless Ltd (JSL) JIST.NS have been stuck at the Belgian port of Antwerp for around a year, unable...

Drewry: Port Throughput Index Down 4.5% Year-on-Year

The Drewry Container Port Throughput Indices are a series of calendar adjusted volume growth/decline indices based on monthly throughput data for a sample of...

Port of Los Angeles moves 487,846 container units in February

The Port of Los Angeles processed 487,846 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in February, a 43% decrease from the previous February’s all-time record. “February declines were...