Freight News, Sea


Updated: 2M is dead, long live Gemini – Maersk to join forces with Hapag-Lloyd in 2025

[ January 17, 2024   //   ]

AP Moller-Maersk has entered a long-term operational collaboration with Hapag-Lloyd. The Gemini Cooperation will be implemented from February 2025, immediately after the conclusion of the Danish-owned operator’s 2M Alliance with MSC. In a note to customers, Maersk says that Gemini will cover seven trades: Asia/North Europe, Middle East-India/Europe, Transatlantic, Asia/US West Coast, Asia/US East Coast, Asia/Middle East and Asia/Mediterranean, comprising 26 mainline services.

These will be complemented by dedicated shuttles centred around owned and/ or controlled transhipment hubs – with 14 shuttle services in Europe, four in the Middle East, 13 in Asia and one in the Gulf of Mexico. Hubs in Europe will be Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam.

Hapag-Lloyd will leave THE Alliance in which it participates with NYK, Yang Ming, MOL, K-Line and HMM at the end of January 2025.

The combined fleet will comprise of around 290 vessels with a combined capacity of 3.4 million TEU, with Maersk deploying 60% of the total and Hapag-Lloyd 40%.

Some services will remain outside the scope of Gemini – 120 routes in the case of Hapag-Lloyd including Africa, Europe–Canada, Latin America–Europe, Intra Americas, Europe and Asia and Oceania. A Maersk spokesman said that Gemini would only cover East-West trade lanes – other services would be outside its scope.

The EU is currently minded to abolish the Block Exemption for shipping line consortia in the near future. A Hapag-Lloyd spokesman said however: “As the European Commission has clearly stated, the expiry of the block exemption does not mean that operational cooperation between shipping lines becomes unlawful under EU antitrust rules. Even after 24 April 2024, consortia remain a fully legal and supported way for shipping companies to ensure efficient services for their customers, as long as they are assessed individually, which is already the case for many of the industry’s vessel sharing agreements today.

“Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk closely monitor and self-assess their cooperation’s compliance with EU competition law and strongly believe that the cooperation will benefit the customers through increased reliability, flexibility and more competitive products.”

The spokesman added that Gemini was “logically geared towards these two partners, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. Our focus is now on the launch of our joint services in February 2025, but we cannot predict if there could be any additions in the future setup. It will all depend on whether it can further improve the product we aim to deliver to our customers.”

Hapag-Lloyd chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen said: “Teaming up with Maersk will help us to further boost the quality we deliver to our customers. Additionally, we will benefit from efficiency gains in our operations and joint efforts to further accelerate the decarbonisation of our industry.” His Maersk counterpart, Vincent Clerc added: “We are pleased to enter this cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, which is the ideal ocean partner on our strategic journey. By entering this cooperation, we will be offering our customers a flexible ocean network that will be raising the bar for reliability in the industry. This will strengthen our integrated logistics offering and meet our customers’ needs.”

The two partners say they aim to deliver schedule reliability above 90% once the network is fully phased in and customers will benefit from improved transit times in many corridors and access to some of the world’s best connected ocean hubs.

Both companies are committed to decarbonising their fleets with Maersk aiming for net-zero in 2040 and Hapag-Lloyd in 2045.

Maersk adds that while the 2M alliance is ending, it remains “a highly reliable network for the East West trades and MSC remains a valuable partner. We look forward to continued collaboration with MSC between now and the end of the 2M agreement in January 2025, followed by a smooth transition to the new Gemini network.”

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