Three container shipping alliances
The three container shipping alliances – 2M, Ocean Alliance, and THE Alliance – have in general dominated in the mainline trades in recent years, however, some reversal of this picture is being seen on the Asia – US West Coast trade.
Sea-Intelligence noted lines started introducing non-alliance services at a rapid rate in the second half of 2020, with this trend accelerating from October to now account for nearly 30% of deployed capacity.
Declining capacity market
“This increase coincided with a sharp decrease in capacity market share for all three carrier alliances, to the point that the non-alliance services now offer more capacity on the Asia-North America West Coast trade lane than both 2M and THE Alliance, and nearly as much as Ocean Alliance,” Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence.
For the Asia – US East Coast non-alliance services account for just under 10% of deployed capacity.
It is very different picture in other trade lanes though and non-alliance capacity on Asia – North Europe has hovered at largely under 1% in 2020 – 2021, while of Asia – Med there are zero non-alliance services on offer to shippers.
Shades of increase
“In terms of the alliances, 2M recorded a declining capacity market share on both trade lanes, with Ocean Alliance seeing an increase on Asia-North Europe while THE Alliance stayed stable, while both Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance recorded an increase on Asia-Mediterranean,” Murphy commented.
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Source: Seatrade-maritime
