Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s ability to roll out a standalone east-west ocean network able to compete with the reshaped alliances, and to offer both Red Sea and Suez Canal service options, indicates the immense scale the carrier has built over the last few years.
The world’s largest container carrier will exit its 2M Alliance with Maersk that expires in January next year, and in preparation for its new direction unveiled this week a comprehensive network coverage plan, coupled with two slot-swap agreements, that MSC described as “independent, competitive and complete.”
With a fleet capacity of 6 million TEUs at its disposal and another 2 million TEUs on the order book the Geneva-based carrier will deploy its vessels on services across the major trade lanes, using strategic slot-sharing deals to plug any loopholes.
“We are announcing a comprehensive standalone network and coupling with that two slot swaps [with the new Premier Alliance and Zim Integrated Shipping Services],” MSC CEO Soren Toft told the Journal of Commerce this week.
“We believe we can give a better extended product than being 100% on our own,” he added.
MSC will provide the independent network beginning in February, wielding “full operational control” over 34 loops across five trades: Asia-North America West Coast (four), Asia-North America East Coast (six), Asia-Europe (seven), Asia-Mediterranean (six) and trans-Atlantic (11).
The carrier will offer customers separate routings via the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope, providing over 1,900 direct port pairs on the Suez option and over 1,800 around southern Africa.
Toft said the Red Sea and Suez options for Asia-Europe, Asia-Med and Asia-East Coast were included to cover fourth-quarter contract negotiations on the trade lanes, although he did not expect any change in the Red Sea situation by the time the new network is rolled out in February.
Details please refer to JOC news.
Source:
Knowler, G. (2024, September 12). MSC’s Global Scale enables standalone network coverage. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/mscs-global-scale-enables-standalone-network-coverage-5726563