Global News Asian ports at the fore in updated Gemini alliance network schedule

Ports in Asia are among the winners, regaining direct calls on several services, in the Gemini Cooperation’s updated service network released Tuesday that offers shippers alternative routings via the Cape of Good Hope and the Suez Canal.

The new network was announced a day after the US Federal Maritime Commission said the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd partnership agreement took effect following a lengthy assessment period.

The revised Gemini network also came a day after the new Premier Alliance created by soon-to-be former THE Alliance carriers, plus Mediterranean Shipping Co. as a slot charter partner, announced its February 2025 service schedule. That schedule also gave Suez and southern Africa routings, but focused on direct port-to-port calls instead of Gemini’s hub-and-spoke approach.

Gemini said Tuesday it will announce next month whether the Cape of Good Hope or Suez Canal option would be used when the alliance is formally launched next February. The carriers said the alternative Cape of Good Hope network around southern Africa was released “due to the ongoing disruptions in the Red Sea.”

The Suez Canal-based network would provide 27 mainline and 30 shuttle services using a combined fleet of 300 ships totaling 3.4 million TEUs on seven east-west trades covering Asia-US, Asia-North Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, Asia-Middle East, Middle East-India, Europe and the trans-Atlantic.

By comparison, the Cape of Good Hope network covers the same seven trades but involves 341 ships totaling 3.7 million TEUs deployed on 29 mainline and 30 shuttle services.

The extra vessels deployed on the southern Africa routing provide “an indication of the capacity absorption from the Red Sea crisis,” Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and a Journal of Commerce analyst, said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday.

Jensen pointed out the Suez network has eight Asia-Europe services, whereas the Cape of Good Hope only has seven services, while the Suez routing has 10 Pacific services, one more than the Cape network.

Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen in August confirmed that tweaks were being made to the Gemini service network for “operational reasons.” Busan, Vung Tau regain hub status South Korea’s Busan and Vung Tau in southern Vietnam are the main beneficiaries in the new schedules, having won back hub status after being relegated to largely feeder ports when Gemini released its initial network last January.

Busan has been included among the direct calls in revised schedules for six trans-Pacific services on both the Suez Canal and Cape of Good Hope options. Vung Tau has been added to three mainline trans-Pacific services via the Suez Canal, but just two on those operating via the Cape of Good Hope.

But even in the new Gemini network, Busan will still lose all its existing mainline calls by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd on Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean services, instead relying on feeder services to Shanghai and Tanjung Pelepas via Qingdao.

Another significant change is that Hong Kong has now been dropped completely from the Gemini network in the revised plan after it was downgraded to a feeder port in the January schedule. Instead, shippers will have to truck or barge cargo independently of the Gemini carriers if they want to connect with their services at Yantian.

Hutchison Port Holdings has already anticipated a loss of cargo through Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung container terminals when some of Maersk’s and Hapag-Lloyd’s throughput currently handled in Hong Kong will shift to Yantian after the Gemini partnership starts.

”The clear winner from the announced new networks appears to be the shippers,” Jensen said in his LinkedIn post. “The networks are quite different in their design, hence offering a more diverse range of products to choose from.”

But Peter Sand, chief analyst for rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, said carriers are likely more focused on efficiencies.

”While we hope for this to improve the service offerings to customers, we also realize that the carriers are optimizing their networks to operational fleet efficiency more than anything else,” Sand told the Journal of Commerce Tuesday.

”As I have said numerous times, each carrier has to focus on its particular strengths because they can’t service everyone to the extent that shippers require to be treated,” he added. “Even MSC must find partners.”

“Reliability, connectivity and sustainability are the keywords in the networks we are presenting today, and we are pleased that we now can give our customers full transparency about how we will deliver a best-in-class ocean network so they can begin planning despite a highly dynamic situation,” Habben Jansen said in a statement announcing the updated network Tuesday.

He previously said Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk would start selling space on the Gemini network this month and start taking bookings from December ahead of Gemini’s February launch.

Habben Jansen expected the transition of vessels and ships from the Gemini carriers’ existing commitments with THE Alliance and 2M Alliance to take about three months.

Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said Gemini’s schedule reliability target remains unchanged at 90% irrespective of which network is phased in from February.