On Wednesday, the “Maersk Columbus” was the first container ship to dock at the NTB container terminal in Bremerhaven as part of the new Gemini cooperation launched on February 1.
The 6,200 TEU vessel is part of the TA 3 transatlantic service, which runs from the seaport to Newark, Charleston, Veracruz in Mexico, New Orleans and Freeport in the Bahamas.
On the return journey of this 32-day round trip, the ship will only call at the two ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in Northern Europe before Bremerhaven. The next arrival of this almost 300 m long boxcarrier is then scheduled for April 2 in Bremerhaven.
Gemini promises punctuality
According to their own statements, both shipping companies want to achieve a level of punctuality of 90% that has not yet been achieved in the industry, with the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd recently only achieving around 50%. To achieve this, the two major shipping companies are relying on a so-called “hub-and-spoke” concept, as practiced by airlines. This involves 29 main services connecting the world’s most important ports in the network with as few stopovers and short transit times as possible. In addition to Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven is also one of the hubs in Germany.
The first handling of the 5,000 TEU Hapag-Lloyd ship “Leonidio” took place in Wilhelmshaven on February 11 as part of its first Gemini rotation on the transatlantic AL1 service. The AL1 service is a fast connection to St. John, Canada and continues to the US Midwest and the ports of New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia and Baltimore. From March, the port of Baltimore will be served in the interim instead of Philadelphia. This service will reach the port of New York in just nine days. The AL4 service will also be coming to Wilhelmshaven for the first time in the near future. Here too, the JadeWeserPort will be the last port of loading in Europe. This service offers a fast connection to the east coast of America, for example to Miami and Mexico (Vera Cruz and Altamira).
As part of the “hub-and-spoke” concept of the Gemini cooperation, the liner alliance between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd in East-West traffic, 28 shuttle services take over the further distribution of cargo in the respective region from the respective hubs. 13 services operate in Europe, ten in Asia, four in the Middle East and one in America.
340 ships in the new network
340 ships from the two partners, which previously operated in previous alliances, now have to be integrated into the new Gemini network. The plan is for the changeover to be fully completed by June. Hapag-Lloyd will provide around 40% of Gemini’s fleet capacity, with the remaining 60% coming from Maersk. Gemini deploys a fleet capacity of around 3.7 million TEU in its network.
Hapag-Lloyd was previously a member of the cooperation “THE Alliance”, with the three remaining partners – ONE (Singapore), HMM (South Korea) and Yang Ming (Taiwan) – continuing under the new name “Premier Alliance”. The Danish shipping company Maersk, on the other hand, previously sailed with the industry leader MSC in the “2M” cooperation. MSC, with a fleet capacity of 6.37 million TEU, will probably continue to operate without a partner.
Gemini’s aim is to create a fast, flexible and interconnected maritime network that will achieve industry-leading reliability once fully implemented. “We are thus solving one of the most important needs of our customers and want to set a new quality standard,” explains Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. The Gemini Cooperation is also creating new industry standards in terms of sustainability. On the north-south routes, however, the two shipping companies will continue to operate independently or with other partners.
The routes in the Gemini network will continue to sail via the Cape of Good Hope for the time being. Only when the security situation allows will the ships return to the route through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. (CE)
