Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) have clinched a 10-year deal dubbed 2M to share vessels on some of the world's busiest trade routes just weeks after Chinese regulators scuttled a wider alliance called P3 between the two carriers and France's CMA CGM.
The 2M vessel sharing agreement differs from the earlier proposed P3 alliance in two important ways: first of all, the combined market share is much smaller. Secondly the cooperation is a pure VSA. There will be no jointly owned independent entity with executional powers.
Maersk Line, the shipping unit of the Danish group A P Moller-Maersk, and Switzerland-based MSC said that the deal should improve profitability and the efficiency of their operations on routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as between Europe and Asia, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Maersk is the world's biggest container-shipping group by capacity.
The deal, which Maersk said would "allow for lower slot costs through improved utilisation of vessel capacity and economies of scale," comes as shipping companies grapple with high fuel costs and sluggish growth in global trade in an industry awash with spare shipping capacity on many routes.
The agreement will include 185 vessels, with Maersk Line expected to contribute around 55 percent of the total capacity.
Maersk said the parties will keep their independent commercial relationships with customers and suppliers and that there will be no joint ownership of the vessels.
The new pact, dubbed 2M by the two shipping companies, replaces the so-called P3 alliance, which would have controlled close to 40 percent of cargo shipped from Asia to Europe.
"We share the same ambition to have as efficient and effective operations as possible. We will continue to provide our customers with competitive and reliable container shipping in the East-West trades at attractive prices. To do so we have to be innovative and take out cost, while keeping a product that is best in class for our customers in terms of coverage, frequency and reliability. Our agreement with MSC is a step towards achieving all of these objectives in the East-West trades," said Søren Skou, Maersk Line CEO.
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