Wilhelmshaven is a hub in the new Gemini network of Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, Hamburg is not. As a result, a Far East service is moving away.
It was only last fall that the “Hamburg Express” (23,660 TEU) was christened as the new flagship in Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet, fittingly in its home port of Hamburg. But tonight, the megamax ship is coming up the Elbe for the last time.
In future, the “Hamburg Express”, like all twelve sister ships deployed in the same FE3 Far East service, will be calling at Wilhelmshaven. Like Bremerhaven, the German deep-water port is a hub in the Gemini network of Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, i.e. a port of call for the so-called Main Line services. Hamburg must resign itself to its role as a subordinate “spoke” port.
In the coming weeks, two more sister ships are expected in the port of Waltershof – the last call is planned for the beginning of April.
With their hub-and-spoke concept, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk only serve around 15 central ports worldwide with their large ships. In addition to the 29 intercontinental direct services, there are 28 “spokes”. These feeder connections bring cargo from other ports to the hubs or distribute it from there to the respective region, also by the most direct route possible. 13 of them operate in Europe, 10 in Asia, 4 in the Middle East and 1 in America.
In this way, the two “Gemini” partners aim to guarantee an unprecedented 90% schedule reliability in the industry, starting in summer at the latest. “Precisely because the shuttles are waiting in the hubs, the punctuality of the main services must be significantly higher than 90% in order to achieve our goal in the end,” Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, recently said.
According to Habben Jansen, the share of transshipment cargo in the total transport volume will increase from 35% to around 45%. As one of the hubs in the Gemini network, Wilhelmshaven is also set to benefit from this at the expense of Hamburg.
More transshipment with Gemini
One reason: the shuttle ships are becoming significantly larger (6,000 TEU) and therefore no longer fit through the Kiel Canal. In future, however, cargo destined for the German hinterland will also be unloaded at the Jade and Weser rivers to avoid the long and expensive journey across the Elbe. In future, Hamburg will only be left with cargo that is needed or shipped locally.
Hapag-Lloyd itself has been involved in the container terminal in Wilhelmshaven for three years. Bremerhaven, where Maersk operates the North Sea Terminal (NTB) in a joint venture with Eurogate, is available as an alternative hub in the North Range. Gemini is also focusing on redundancy and thus flexibility in the event of possible disruptions in other regions.
In the western Mediterranean, the hubs Tangier Med (Morocco) and Algeciras (Spain) will complement each other, in the eastern Mediterranean Damietta and Port Said, and in Asia, for example, Singapore and the Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelepas. (KF)
