HAMBURG/KOPENHAGEN (dpa-AFX) - The container shipping companies Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk intend to sail the world's oceans as partners with part of their fleets in future. In order to enable customers to make more punctual deliveries and overcome the challenges of climate-neutral conversion, they have agreed to cooperate, as the companies jointly announced in Hamburg and Copenhagen on Wednesday. The alliance is due to start in February 2025 and is called the "Gemini Cooperation". "Gemini" means "twins" in Latin and English.

Both partners will give up their previous alliances with other shipping companies at the beginning of next year. Next January, Hapag-Lloyd will leave the previous alliance "THE Alliance" with the shipping companies ONE from Japan, Yang Ming from Taiwan and HMM from South Korea. Maersk and the world's largest shipping company MSC had already announced at the beginning of 2023 that they would dissolve their "2M" alliance in January 2025.

According to the industry service "Alphaliner", Denmark's Maersk is the world's number two container shipping company with a fleet of more than 670 ships. Hamburg-based shipping company Hapag-Lloyd is in fifth place with just under 270 ships. However, not all of the two partners' fleets will be included in the alliance.

The new cooperation will comprise a pool of around 290 ships with a combined capacity of 3.4 million standard containers (TEU), according to the press release. Maersk will contribute 60 percent of the capacity, Hapag-Lloyd the remaining 40 percent.

"As part of the agreement, the two companies have set themselves the ambitious goal of achieving a schedule reliability of over 90 percent once the network is fully implemented," it said. Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen expects the quality of the service to improve accordingly.

"In addition, we will benefit from efficiency gains in our operations and joint efforts to further accelerate the decarbonization of our industry," said Habben Jansen. Maersk aims to achieve "net zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, Hapag-Lloyd by 2045.

Shipping alliances are not uncontroversial in the maritime industry. For example, shore-based cargo handling companies fear that shipping companies will gain greater market power. This is why they lobbied the EU Commission for the end of the block exemption rule. This had allowed shipping companies to benefit from reduced competition rules for cooperations. The corresponding regulation expires on April 25. "However, this does not mean that cooperation between shipping companies would then be illegal under EU antitrust law," says the Brussels authority./kf/DP/mis