With the formation of the Gemini Cooperation between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd correspondent Nick Savvides examines how alliances may change their approach to customer service.
Commitment To Partnership
Ocean Network Express (ONE) has issued a statement reaffirming THE Alliance partners’ commitment to their partnership over the coming year, following Hapag-Lloyd’s resignation, to join Maersk in the Gemini Cooperation.
The remaining lines would inevitably wish to reassure their customers of their commitment to the cause and the quality of their service, but Hapag-Lloyd’s departure from THEA could be about more than just reshuffling capacity, and more about a major change in carriers’ approach to customers
THEA carrier’s statement essentially commits for the next year to maintain its services, Hapag Lloyd, HMM, Yang Ming and ONE stated: “We wish to emphasise our unwavering commitment to maintaining a robust cooperation throughout 2024 ensuring that the highest standards of cooperation and exceptional service are delivered to our stakeholders and the industry at large.”
Dawn Of a New Era
Is this the beginning of a new era? It could be useful to reflect on what has changed over the last four years to create the conditions for a new evolution.
Climate action, technology and the pandemic have turned the container shipping industry into a new animal. Where 10 or so lines were offering basic port-to-port services with little differentiation other than price, regulation has forced carriers to offer greener services, and following the pandemic carriers have the cash to deliver the differentiation needed.
The most crucial change came with the pandemic. Soaring profits of nearly $300 billion a year over two years has allowed the carriers to transform their businesses, including for some, like Maersk and CMA CGM, to develop into integrated supply chain operations.
This troika of change has transformed the container shipping seascape. Gemini is a consequence of that transformation.
A New Partner?
Another possibility for THEA, as Alphaliner points out, is to invite the Taiwan carrier Wan Hai to join its alliance, with its fleet of 18 vessels of 13,000 teu ships, some of which are still on order. This would replace about a third of the Hapag-Lloyd capacity.
ONE itself has 32 large container ships on order, including 12 methanol-powered vessels. HMM also has some methanol-powered vessels on order and is increasing its fleet size from 820,000 teu to 1.2 million teu according to the latest reports.
Yang Ming, the third alliance partner also has five LNG-powered 15,500 teu vessels on order.
Together these new buildings and the addition of Wan Hai could compensate for the resignation of Hapag-Lloyd from THEA, giving the group the possibility of competing on market share, with Ocean Alliance and Gemini.
Gemini, however, is operating on another plane, so to speak.
A Hapag-Lloyd spokesman said that the company is “not planning to lose market share” and he argues that quality has always been at the centre of Hapag’s planning.
Quality Services
Freight forwarder representative Nicolette van der Jagt, Clecat Director General said she has not had many responses from her members on the issues raised.
However, she pointed out: “Ultimately less port calls (is this simplification?) will maybe keep their time schedules more intact, but this is not to the service of connectivity. I have not heard shippers calling for more feeder services, but instead more direct services.”
Intermediaries may want more direct services, but shippers are more engaged with the Gemini move: “It would be a welcome strategy and one consistent with Maersk’s stated aim of becoming a full-service logistics provider, where customer relationships are everything,” said Global Shippers’ Forum Director James Hookham.
He went on to point out: “In these business models, the key metrics are more subtle than gross market share, such as deliveries on time, product availability (to the end customer), and customer satisfaction scores. These are the outcomes of value added by the logistics provider and offer a clearer route to more enduring and predictable contracted business of the sort that Maersk says it wants, and Hapag-Lloyd has tended to specialize in.”
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Source: IndiaShippingnews
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