Wan Hai Lines could fill the gap in THE Alliance left by Hapag-Lloyd’s departure, according to Yang Ming’s ex-chairman Bronson Hsieh.
Last month, Hapag-Lloyd announced it would leave THE Alliance in January 2025, to form the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk and, as the largest member of the grouping the move will no doubt weaken its competitiveness.
Mr Hsieh said: “Wan Hai has a good number of 13,000 teu ships, so that could make it welcome in an alliance. If Wan Hai relaunches its ambitions of starting services to Europe, it could be invited to join THE Alliance.”
Wan Hai has started taking delivery of a series of 18 13,000 teu ships ordered during Covid and, with more than 592,000 teu of capacity, is the 11th-largest liner operator.
Originally an intra-Asia carrier, Wan Hai launched transpacific services in 2020 and, despite the correction in freight rates post-pandemic, has remained committed to the long-haul market. It has also said it was open to starting Asia-Europe services.
THE Alliance members, Yang Ming, ONE and HMM, declined to comment, although ONE has said an announcement regarding specific service structures would be made in 2025.
A Wan Hai spokesperson said: “Wan Hai doesn’t rule out various ways to improve the efficiency of slot utilisation, and alliances are only one of the possible options. At present, Wan Hai has different partners on certain routes to increase its network through joint services or slot swaps.”
But Linerlytica analyst Tan Hua Joo said, Wan Hai’s fleet, being far smaller than the 1.9m teu of Hapag-Lloyd, would be inadequate to plug the gap left by the German operator’s departure from THE Alliance, which will be left with 2.5m teu without Hapag-Lloyd, facing Gemini’s 3.4m teu.
Mr Tan said: “THE Alliance will remain the smallest of the four alliances. Wan Hai will only be able to replace Hapag-Lloyd’s vessel contributions on the transpacific, but not on Asia-Europe and transatlantic routes.”
