b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comAre containership operatorsOCEAN CARRIER REVIEW 2023nearing an inflection point?Arecontainershipoperatorsenteringuncharted waters? With a heavy orderbook, new regulatory and environmental regimes and carriers looking to expand on the traditional business model, the future may not be business as usual.By George Lauriat, AJOTT opH eavy .sincethetwocompanies It doesnt take a logisti- signed the 10-year agreement cian to see that the contain- in2015.Discontinuingthe ership business is top heavy.2Malliancepavestheway [See Top 50 Container Car- forbothcompaniestocon-riersChartsourcedfromtinue to pursue their individ-AlphalinersTop100data]ual strategiesIfacontainershipwasbuiltThisisntabouttwo withthesameproportionsinsignificant operators at the as the industry, it would turnbottom of the industryMSC turtle and sink. And the con- is number one with 736 ships tainershipbusinessisevenwith over 4.7 million TEUs, more concentrated when thewhilenumbertwoMaersk, oceancarrieralliancesarewhich had been number one takenintoconsideration(POINTcontinued on therearereallyonlythreepage 10) Hamburg Sud container vessel docked at Barbours Cut Container Terminal, Port Houstonthatcount:the2M(Medi-terraneanShippingCo.and Maersk),THEAlliance (HapagLloyd,OceanNet-work Express, Hyundai Mer-chant Marine and Yang MingField FreshMarine) and the Ocean Alli-ance(CMACGM,COSCOWith Less Wasteand Evergreen). Between the threecarrieralliancesthey operateover3,000ships amounting to nearly 22 mil-lion TEUs. The membership of the ocean carrier alliances accounts for nine out of the toptenoceancarriers(and thatcomeswithsomewhat ofanasterisk,asnumber 10, Zim Integrated Shipping Services,althoughindepen-dent, has had a relationship with the 2M alliance).For an ocean shipper, this meansthereisanexcellent chancethatyourfreightis carried by one of the top 10 carriers and operating within one of the three ocean carrier alliances. It is worth mention-ingthattheseoceancarrier alliances are not rate making groups,asanti-trustregula-tory regimes on a global basis forbids such a collaboration. Oceancarrieralliancesare aboutvesselschedulingand backroom functions. At a base level, alliances are a function ofshipsandslotutilizationa collaboration to improve operatingefficiencies,inan industry that up until the post-COVID cargo surge and the accompanying record freight rates, rarely posted a decent return on investment.2M B reakup : M inor orM oMenTous ? Telematics Remote Climate Data Driven Real TimePerhapsthemosttalked about industry event of 2023Technology Controls Insights Trackingasidefromtheplummet-ingfreightrateswasthe jointJanuaryannouncement by MSC and Maersk to ter- Its not just the box SeaCubeminatetheir2Mallianceinits our approach to offering food waste mitigation solutions Januaryof2025.Inajointbundled with leading edge technology that makes the difference. C O N T A I N E R L E A S I N Gstatement, CEO Vincent ClercVisit www.seacubecontainers.com to learn more.of A. P. Moller - Maersk, andseacubecontainers.comCEO Soren Toft of MSC say:MSC and Maersk recog-nizethatmuchhaschanged BSYA 1011 Sea Cube Pineapple Food Waste Mitigation 8x10 AJOT_r5.indd 1 2/9/23 1:58 PM'