b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comWhats the future forOCEAN CARRIER REVIEW 2024ocean carrier alliances?In 2025 Maersk and Hapag will begin their Gemini Cooperation alliance while MSC will go it alone. So with all these domino changes, whats the future of ocean carrier alliances?By George Lauriat, AJOTWhats the future of oceanandHapagLloydsdefection carrier alliances? At this writingfromTHEAlliancetojoining the 2M alliance consisting of theMaersk in the Gemini Coopera-mega-carriers,Mediterraneantion, there is a shift in alliance ShippingCompany(MSC),theoperationsifnotpower worldslargestcontainershipcoming soon.operator and Maersk, the second largest containership operator isD ivergenTl inerset to dissolve in January of 2025.s TrATegiesHapag Lloyd, the 5th larg- Sincethe2023announce-estcontainershipoperatorandment of the 2M split by Maersk a current member of THE Alli- and MSC alliance, the two carriers ance, is set to leave the grouphave proceeded with their mutu-in 2025 and join Maersk in theally agreed disentanglement. GeminiCooperationallianceIn the case of the two giants in February of 2025.(FUTUREcontinued on Consideringthatthethreepage 8)majoralliances,the2M,THE Alliance,andOceanAlliance, include nine out of the top ten containershipoperators,the reshufflingofthealliancesis analogous to a major remodel-ingofthecontainershipping industry itself. So, whats next: a big change or more of the same? On Track with RailT heP ower of TheA lliAncesThe power of the top threeThe Port of Long Beach is investing $1.5 billion in rail infrastructuremore tracks, longer containershipoperatorsalli-ances is immense. trains and greener locomotives. More cargo moving faster to market more efficiently as Althoughgovernmentagen- we work to become the worlds first zero-emissions port.ciesaroundtheglobeforbid oceancarriersfromcollaborat-ingonfreightrates,coopera-tion with scheduling and other backroomoperationsisper-mitted.Andtheschedulingof vesselrotationsisapowerful tool,evenwithoutthefreight collaboration. It is a power that liesinnumbers.Accordingto Alphaliner,probablythemost respected chronicler of contain-ership statistics, there are some 6,880 containerships active with a capacity of 29,245,085 TEUs. The combined fleets of the exist-ingalliancestotal3,504ships or just about 51% of the active fleet (see Alliance Charts). But the real power is the TEU capac-ity. The combined alliances have 23,727,046TEUsincapacity orjustover81%ofthetotal world fleet. This overwhelming TEU capacity translates into an unmatchedabilitytoglobally move containers and thus move goods. This is at the core of the alliance system and the contain-ership industry. And if things were to con-tinueunchanged,thepower wouldincreaseastheTEU capacityonorderthecon-tainership orderbookis con-centrated among the current big threealliancemembers.MSC, has 1.3 million TEUs worth of capacity on order while number 3rankedCMACGMhas1.1 million TEUs of capacity. Of the ocean container carri-ers outside the big three alliances, Zim the 10th ranked carrier, has just over 144,000 TEU on order, while PIL (Pacific International Line) has just 104,000 TEUs on order and no other container ship operatorhascloseto100,000 TEUs on order. Of course, with the 2M split'