Gemini Cooperation: Hapag, Maersk plan partnership from February 2025

Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk have signed an agreement for a new long-term operational partnership called the Gemini Cooperation, which will start in February 2025.

Hapag-Lloyd has given notice to end its membership of THE Alliance at the end of January 2025, says an official release from Hapag.

The Gemini Cooperation will cover seven global (sub)trades and offer 26 mainline services, the release added. "The network will be centred around 12 key hub ports (10 owned and/or controlled terminals and two highly efficient operations in Singapore and Cartagena). We will, in addition, run 32 dedicated regional shuttle services to and from these key hubs to ensure seamless connections to many major ports. The fleet of our new partnership will consist of some 290 modern and efficient vessels with an overall standing capacity of 3.4 million TEU, many ready to adopt cleaner fuels."

Maersk will deploy 60 percent and Hapag-Lloyd 40 percent, according to a release from Maersk. “We are pleased to enter this cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, which is the ideal ocean partner on our strategic journey," says Vincent Clerc, CEO, Maersk. "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 plan is to create an interconnected ocean network that offers:

*Industry leading schedule reliability of >90 percent (once fully implemented) to enable significantly higher on-time delivery of your cargo

*Excellent network coverage with efficient connections and competitive transit times to be global ocean carrier partner-of-choice; and

*Acceleration of sustainability efforts to faster decarbonise operations and supply chains

"Let me be very transparent here, this is not a decision against THE Alliance, which has been a long-standing, trusted and successful partnership for us," says Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO, Hapag-Lloyd. "It is a next step to build something new that we believe will enable us to generate even more value for our customers by pairing our Hapag-Lloyd customer service with much higher operational quality in a robust and resilient network.

"This does not represent a change of strategic direction for Hapag-Lloyd. We remain fully focused on liner shipping and the closely connected terminal and inland operations. We have no intention to become a logistics integrator. We do believe, however, that with Maersk we have found a like-minded partner who shares our passion for quality and sustainability."

Maersk and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company had decided to end their 2M alliance w.e.f. January 2025.

"The 2M Alliance is still 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," Maersk said in its latest customer advisory.