While the changing atmosphere of ocean carrier alliances for containerized cargo isn’t something new, it has been a tumultuous few years in the industry. What used to be four primary alliances has now transformed into three new large ocean carrier alliances.
Effective on April 1, 2017, these three large alliances are considered formal carrier alliances, and were a dramatic display of the vast changes being made in the industry, as they now cover 95 percent of global container trade. The alliances are: the 2M Alliance (MSC, Maersk, Hamburg Sud, Hyundai), the Ocean Alliance (CMA CGM, APL, COSCO, China Shipping, OOCL, Evergreen) and The Alliance. (NYK Group, “K” Line, MOL, Yang Ming, Hapag-Lloyd, UASC).
With the changes in carrier ownership over the past year, some of the “carriers” listed as alliance members are now actually a brand of the carrier owner. For example, Maersk is buying Hamburg Sud, Hapag Lloyd bought UASC, CMA CGM owns APL, and COSCO is purchasing OOCL. Japanese carriers will also form a single entity in April 2018. And consequently, the overall pool of competitors keeps decreasing.