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Gemini promises absolute punctuality

The alliance between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd started in February. The hub-and-spoke concept is intended to offer unprecedented schedule reliability.

What starts in the first days of February is the result of almost two years of preparatory work. Initially, the CEOs of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd negotiated quietly for a long time before signing their new alliance called “Gemini Cooperation” at the beginning of 2024. The network experts from both liner shipping companies then spent months working out timetables, available ships, terminal capacities and departure times.

“Gemini” is the only truly new of the three liner alliances. The alliance between France’s CMA CGM, Cosco (China), OOCL (Hong Kong) and Evergreen (Taiwan), which has existed since 2017, was and remains the largest with a capacity of almost 5 million TEU. However, MSC, Maersk’s former “2M” partner, is a solo player with 6.37 million TEU. The “Premier Alliance” of ONE (Japan), HMM (South Korea) and Yang Ming (Taiwan), which was renamed following the departure of Hapag-Lloyd, offers 3.5 million TEU, and MSC is a slot charter partner in some trade lanes. The other solo operators ZIM, PIL and Wan Hai are also likely to join forces with other carriers or alliances in one case or another.

Gemini is positioned in the middle of the big three

With a planned capacity of 3.7 million TEU, the “Gemini Cooperation” is positioned in the middle of the big three. The official start date is February 1, but it will actually take a few weeks or even months to complete the reorganization. After all, around 340 ships from the two partners are to be integrated into a global liner network in seven East-West trade lanes, comprising 29 intercontinental services and 28 regional feeder services. 40% of the fleet will be provided by Hapag-Lloyd, the other 60% by Maersk.

Anders Boenaes, Hapag-Lloyd, Gemini
Anders Boenæs, Senior Managing Director “Network” at Hapag-Lloyd since August 2020 (© Hapag-Lloyd)

According to Anders Boenæs, Senior Managing Director Network at Hapag-Lloyd since August 2020, the joint preparations have long been completed. Immediately before “Day X”, the position of each ship is recorded daily and compared with the expected arrival time at the port scheduled for the change. There, the cargo of the previous alliance partners is disembarked, and from this moment on it is a “Gemini” ship sailing according to the new schedule.

Customers have been informed in good time and should not notice the changeover in practice, provided the weather cooperates and there are no other disruptive influences. “It will hopefully be very smooth,” says Boenæs. However, the entire process will take around two and a half months until the last freighter has arrived at Gemini after the currently longest transit time of 14 weeks and the first complete rotation according to the new schedule has been successfully completed.

Unlike in previous alliances or in future with MSC as the sole operator, many port calls along the important trade routes will be dispensed with. Instead, the “Gemini” partners will concentrate on twelve strategic container hubs for the intercontinental services, including Wilhelmshaven and Bremerhaven in Germany. From the hubs, regional shuttle services will take over further transportation to other destinations.

“The risk of delays increases with every port in a service,” explains Boenæs. With “Gemini”, on the other hand, transit times are to be shortened and service reliability significantly improved. Difficulties in a feeder service would then no longer affect the “Main Line” service or other shuttle services, says Boenæs.

Following the full introduction of the joint network, from around mid-2025, the two shipping companies are promising to achieve a timetable reliability of 90%. However, despite the goal set out in the corporate strategy of becoming the clear No. 1 among all carriers in terms of service quality, Hapag-Lloyd has recently been bobbing around at just under 50%. “Adherence to schedules has always been a problem in liner shipping, and the situation has become even worse with and after the coronavirus crisis,” says Boenæs. This is now set to change dramatically, with everyone at Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd pulling in the same direction, regardless of their respective preferences. “The clocks are being reset with us.”

The response from freight customers has been encouraging, says the head of the network. In the sensitive US trade lane, for example, where there are traditionally many long-term contracts, the demand for bookings has increased significantly. In future, every customer can and must decide whether to entrust their cargo to “Gemini” – or to another carrier. “But then we also have to keep our promise,” admits Boenæs, i.e. keep the ship’s scheduled arrival date. “We want and need to show right from the start that we can do things differently and better.”

However, customers are only interested in the ships’ adherence to schedules if their cargo is on board and arrives at its destination on time. “In future, we will transparently measure the punctuality of each individual box. That will be the next step we take,” says Boenæs. (KF)

Gemini, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk
The Gemini network (© Hapag-Lloyd)

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Copyright: © Hasenpusch

Caption: Two container ships from Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd meet on the Elbe off Hamburg (© Hasenpusch)