MSC has expanded its own market share for liner services. The Aponte company is thus preparing for the imminent end of the alliance with Maersk.
Current data shows clear growth on the transpacific routes and on the connection between Asia and Europe. The shipping company is thus preparing for the end of the 2M alliance with Maersk.
“2M” alliance ends for MSC at the beginning of 2025
MSC and Maersk will end their cooperation in February 2025. While the Danes will operate with Hapag-Lloyd under the name “Gemini Cooperation” in future, the company led by Gianluigi Aponte will remain on the market as a single party. The world’s largest container shipping company is, therefore, already concentrating on services operating outside of “2M”.
New data from Sea-Intelligence shows a significant increase in capacity on the Asia-Europe routes. Compared to Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, which also operate independent routes on this connection, the Geneva-based shipping company was able to make significant gains and most recently had a share of 7.5%.
MSC was already expanding its own share before the Houthi attacks
This development was already apparent before the crisis in the Red Sea, as Sea-Intelligence reported. However, since the Yemeni Houthi militia began attacking merchant ships, the company has stepped up its activities in this direction once again and outsourced services from the 2M alliance. This has not been the case for Maersk to date.
On the Asia-Mediterranean routes, the shipping company also started to increase its own share before the crisis in the Red Sea. Since the second quarter of 2023, the shipping company’s stand-alone services have accounted for around 9% of capacity here.
According to Sea-Intelligence, a similar trend can also be observed on the two routes connecting Asia with America. On the route to the US East Coast, MSC increased its share from 3% to 6%. When the market situation worsened in the third quarter of 2020 as a result of the pandemic, MSC also launched individual services between Asia and the US West Coast. Here, the shipping company was able to keep its own share constant at 6% (apart from a brief increase at the end of 2021), as Sea-Intelligence reports.
In addition, MSC recently announced adjustments to the “Swan” and “Britannia” services. The latter will include Hamburg instead of Antwerp in its rotation in future and will call with 13 ships between 6,400 and 9,500 TEU. The reason for this is likely to be MSC’s entry into the Hamburg port operator HHLA, which is as good as sealed. It has already been accepted by the Hamburg Parliament in a first reading; the opposition postponed the necessary second reading until 4 September.
