‘Ocean Alliance,’ formed by China’s COSCO Shipping, France’s CMA CGM, Taiwan’s Evergreen Line and Hong Kong’s OOCL, announced last month that it will deploy 350 container vessels to the global market to challenge the other newly formed carrier alliances.
‘2M,’ formed by Denmark’s Maersk Line and Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping, now controls more than 2.1 million TEUs and manages over 200 vessels.
‘The Alliance,’ also came in to being last month, comprising six industry majors: NYK Line, Mitsui OSK Line, Hapag-Lloyd, United Arab Shipping, K Line and Yang Ming Marine Transport. They will launch operations in April, offering 31 services covering 75 ports and utilising 240 vessels.
Under an alliance, members can share port calls, networks and ships, with a view to cutting costs. With these new partnerships in place, in addition to the recent Japanese alliances, our industry expects to be able offer better services, competitive rates and schedule reliability for Australian imports and exports in 2017.
