The Ocean Alliance is making a strategic move that stands apart from its rivals with major investments in ultra-large containerships (ULCV).
While its competitors, 2M and the Alliance companies are pursuing strategies of stable development using ULCVs to augment existing services.
Ocean Alliance’s fortune
The group’s ULCV capacity is expected to grow by 60 percent in 2018, according to a report from SeaIntel.
The expected schedule showed that Ocean Alliance is likely to improve its offering to 42 services with 340 vessels and 3.6 million TEU, from its current 41 east-west services of 3.35 million TEU capacity with 331 ships.
The group will also operate six Asia-North Europe services, five Asia-Mediterranean services, five Asia-Middle East, two Asia-Red Sea, and four transatlantic services.
The transatlantic TAE2 is a new service from Alliance, which offers improved transit times on a port rotation of Southampton – Le Havre – Antwerp – Rotterdam – Bremerhaven – Charleston – Savannah – Miami – New York – Southampton.
Alliance presence
The Ocean Alliance collectively will still have the largest number of transpacific services, with 20 between Asia and the west and east coasts of North America, including nine to Southern California ports, four to the Pacific northwest, and seven to the US east coast.
But SeaIntel expects some serious changes to Ocean services with the influx of the new ULCVs.
Seatel report says, “We will see Ocean Alliance potentially change the network more drastically, offering new products and network structures, driven by the rapid delivery of large vessels.”
Market impact
According to SeaIntel, Ocean’s competitors, the members of the Ocean Alliance: Cosco, CMA CGM, Evergreen and OOCL, will see their fleets undergo radical change.
Seatel says comments that, “if they wish to optimize their changing fleet portfolio, the carriers need to rethink the fundamental structure of their current network.”
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Source: Global Trade Magazine
