Singapore, the world’s largest transhipment hub, has emerged as one of the clear winners in the forthcoming alliance reshuffle, new analysis from Alphaliner today shows, reports The Loadstar.
New alliance structure
With the February deadline for the new alliance structure to begin – with the three main groupings of the Ocean Alliance, THE Alliance and 2M partnership scheduled to reform into the Gemini Cooperation, Premier Alliance, standalone MSC and an unchanged Ocean Alliance – analysis of the new port rotations shows Singapore gaining six more port calls from the Asia-North Europe carriers.
In the South-east Asia region, Singapore’s gain is partly Maersk-controlled Tanjung Pelepas’s loss, the Malaysian transhipment hub losing two Asia-North Europe calls.
In North Europe, the Belgian hub of Antwerp – MSC’s regional hub – is the main victim of the reshuffle. It will lose four Asia-North Europe calls with the Gemini Cooperation’s exit from the port to focus hub-and-spoke transhipment operations on Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven.
For shippers and their freight forwarding partners, the shake-up will prove a net benefit, in terms of choice, the analyst suggests.
12 services
However, the total port calls across those 12 services cumulatively offered by Gemini, MSC and Premier Alliance will decline, to 132, compared with the 148 currently offered by 2M and THE Alliance – again due to the Gemini Cooperation’s hub-and-spoke network.
The Gemini network will see its direct port calls drastically reduced, compared with Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s current direct call count.
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Source: The Loadstar
