The four member shipping lines of the OCEAN Alliance—CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Evergreen, and OOCL—have agreed to extend their partnership from five years to five more.
CMA CGM announced that executives of the four partner carriers signed January 18 in Hainan, China the extension of their cooperation until 2027. Launched in 2017 for an initial period of five years with an option for a five-year renewal, OCEAN Alliance is the world’s largest operational agreement between shipping companies.
“The confirmation of the 10-year duration of this partnership only two years after its launch reflects the trust and high-quality working relationship established between CMA CGM and its partners within OCEAN Alliance,” said CMA CGM.
The extension of the alliance came after the January 16 launch of the OCEAN Alliance Day 3 Product, the third phase of the group’s reinforced offer of its product mix, set to start in April 2019.
Noting the fierce competition in the industry, the alliance said it developed the third phase of its product offering “to improve our overall competitive position while meeting the evolving needs of the global supply chain in today’s increasingly volatile market environment.”
For the Day 3 Product, the alliance will be bringing to its clients an optimized offer through the use of around 330 container ships (111 of which will be operated by the French container liner) as well as an estimated carrying capacity of around 3.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units or TEUs.
The new product will also deploy 38 services, broken down as follows:
- 19 Transpacific services, the largest on the trade lane
- 7 services between Asia and Europe, up from 6
- 4 services between Asia and the Mediterranean
- 4 services between Asia and the Middle East
- 2 Asia-Red Sea services
- 2 Transatlantic services
Rodolphe Saadé, chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, stated: “This new agreement with our Asian partners will enable us to propose to our customers an unrivaled and competitive service offering.”
Photo: Alf van Beem
