Launching Gemini, their upcoming container alliance set to commence in February 2025, the Danish, the world’s second-largest shipping company, and the German Hapag-Lloyd, the fifth-largest globally, have announced that they will prioritize a few hubs where they have their own terminals. The port of Tanger Med will be favored.
As the container shipping sector faces significant disruptions due to the situation in the Red Sea, two major players announce their alliance: the Danish Maersk and the German Hapag-Lloyd. Named ‘Gemini Corporation,’ it will come into effect in February 2025. This collaboration ‘will include a fleet of about 290 vessels with a combined capacity of 3.4 million containers,’ the shipowners stated in a press release.
In this joint document, the two maritime transport giants have announced their aim to achieve a reliability of over 90% once the agreement is fully implemented. To achieve this, they are focusing on transshipment hubs controlled by both shipowners, where ships serving the 26 intercontinental routes (between Europe and Asia, Europe and the United States, Asia and the United States, Europe and the Middle East…) operated in partnership will call. « From hubs owned or controlled by this new alliance, these pendulum lines will be connected to secondary ports via shuttles provided by feeders, » the shipowners said. Thus, the two shipowners announce 14 feeder services from Europe. In Asia, there are 13 shuttle services, and in the Middle East, four feeder services will be implemented. Finally, there is one operational service in the Gulf of Mexico.
While the vertical service of Africa, like all north-south traffic, is not directly affected by this new alliance, which is more focused on east-west axes, an African port will be favored, Tanger Med. The Maersk group, through its subsidiary APM Terminals, owns two (TC1 and TC4) of the four terminals there, and Hapag-Lloyd holds 10% of a third (TC3), operated by the Tanger Alliance company, a joint venture owned by Marsa Maroc at 50%, and with Eurogate partners at 40% and Hapag Lloyd at 10%. It is around these three terminals that Gemini will build a network focused on the Mediterranean, West African ports, and even Europe. Thus, the French port of Le Havre, which currently hosts Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s large vessels, will be partly connected to the world via Tanger Med.
For the latter, it is a recognition. Tanger Med, a recent port opened less than 20 years ago, continues to break records. In 2023, it achieved a total traffic of 122 million tonnes, up by 13.6%, consolidating its position as the leading Mediterranean port and accounting for half of Moroccan port activity. Tanger Med achieved a new record container traffic of 8.617 million EVP containers, up by 13.4% compared to 2022 (double that of Algeciras, its Spanish rival, on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar). This traffic, four years ahead of targets, corresponds, according to Tanger Med, to 95% of the nominal capacity of the four container terminals.
The progress is due to the good performance of terminals TC1 and TC4, operated by Maersk-APM, and to the continuous ramp-up of terminal TC3, operated by Tanger Alliance. 2023 also saw record productivity levels with monthly peaks exceeding 800,000 handled EVP containers. « Since last December, we have been witnessing the emergence of a new port order crystallized around Morocco and West Africa, as a result of disruptions in the Red Sea, forcing ships to be diverted via the Cape of Good Hope, » explains Najib Cherfaoui, Maritime Expert.
And to add: « As a result, major global shipowners are active around the African route and are strengthening their anchorage on the total containerized capacity of the African continent, amounting to 57 million EVP. Thus, Gemini seizes a capacity of 30 million boxes [Maersk (25 million) and Hapag (5 million)], MSC (16 million), and CMA CGM (11 million). However, through the acquisition of Bolloré Africa logistics in 2022, MSC is in pole position on West Africa. As a reminder, West Africa has exactly 29 commercial ports. In view of these considerations, all strategic positions are occupied. Consequently, it becomes clear that Gemini has the opportunity to rediscover the Kingdom’s valuable maritime resource through the options, quite providential, offered by the Casablanca/Dakhla Atlantic port dipole.
