As the deadline for new container shipping alliances near, here’s a look back: overall, across the entire alliance life cycle of the current alliance structure so far (2017-2024), 2M was the most consistent in terms of schedule reliability, with the highest composite score, according to the latest update from Sea-Intelligence.
“The current three alliance structure in container shipping has been in place since April 2017 when Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance launched alongside the already existing 2M alliance. After nearly eight years of operations, February 2025 will bring about a new alliance structure.
“During this eight-year period, the trends in schedule reliability have changed considerably. That said, schedule reliability can be hard to contextualise over longer periods of time, which is why we have created a composite score for each year these alliances have been in
operation. The way this score was calculated was as follows: for each trade lane that the alliances were operational in, we calculated how many months each alliance ranked 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in terms of schedule reliability. These numbers were then multiplied by 3, 2, and 1, for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively.
Ocean Alliance was the most consistent carrier alliance in terms of schedule reliability, followed closely by 2M, with THE Alliance lagging considerably, the update added. “In 2019 and 2020, 2M and Ocean Alliance switched places whereas in 2021, Ocean Alliance dropped below even THE Alliance. In 2024, Ocean Alliance has once again regained the top spot, and THE Alliance has seen a significant resurgence in schedule reliability, elevating it to the second spot. 2M was the least consistent carrier alliance in terms of schedule reliability in 2024.”
2M, however, was ranked first in 49 percent of the instances, and second in 31 percent of the instances. Ocean Alliance was the next most reliable carrier alliance, having been first in 36 percent of the instances and second in 39 percent of the instances. THE Alliance only managed to come out on top in 15 percent of the instances and was 2nd in 31 percent of the instances, the update added.
MSC and Maersk, which formed the 2M Alliance, have parted ways with Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd launching Gemini Cooperation that will go operational in February 2025. While MSC is going it alone, THE Alliance (now renamed Premier Alliance) will include Ocean Network
Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming. Ocean Alliance will include CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, OOCL and Evergreen.