Gemini Cooperation terminals well placed for start of alliance
The Gemini Cooperation, between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, has said that service reliability is a key driver of its association, backed by key terminals operations.
Experts say Gemini is well placed for terminal operations in all the major regions that the carriers will serve as the start of the alliance draws near.
Cooperation between the two top ten lines is due to start in February 2025 and Drewry Shipping consultants outlined the various key regions including North Europe and the Mediterranean where the alliance will operate and said that while Hamburg’s Altenweder Terminal could be a challenge with the larger ships unable to pass under the Köhlbrandbrücke bridge, both carriers have overflow port capacity, Maersk at Bremerhaven and Hapag-Lloyd at Wilhelmshaven.
Gemini will operate a hub and spoke system delivering cargo to major hubs and using shuttle vessels to deliver freight to regional ports.
Ports and terminals specialist at Drewry’s Eleanor Hadland said: “Gemini is in a good position to start with very little exposure to ports and terminals where neither carrier has a shareholding.”
Hadland said that where the lines are exposed to terminals in which they have no stake they do have long standing relationships and there should be little or no effect on the services that the Gemini operates. Hadland mentioned Jebel Ali in the UAE, Red Sea ports in Saudi Arabia and Shanghai transhipment which, “should not be a worry”.
Hadland estimates that around 70% of the terminals that the Gemini will call at are either operated by one of the two lines or they have a major shareholding in the facility.
Another area of interest is the one port call on the Caribbean coast of Columbia at Cartegena where neither line has a stake, however, Hadland said that the call will connect to a single small shuttle a week which will connect non-Gemini Latin American services along South America’s east coast.
North Europe and the Mediterranean are well served by Gemini, with Hapag-Lloyd having a stake in the Tanger terminal operated by Eurogate and Marsa Maroc (10% stake in Container Terminal 3 of the Tangier Med 2 port in Morocco) while Maersk has two 100% owned terminals in Tangier, which Hadland said gives GC spare capacity which it could need to meet its operational requirements of delivering freight on time.
“Terminals at Tangier are exceptional, world class,” said Hadland, “their crane performance is up there with the highest in the world and they operate a ‘just-in-time’, no wait arrival system too.”
In central Europe Hapag-Lloyd acquired the Spinelli Group and is a long-standing customer of Genoa, while further east in Suez and the Red Sea the two carriers have established port operations that will be more than enough to meet Gemini’s requirements said Hadland.
Hapag-Lloyd operates a terminal at Damietta, and the Suez Canal Container Terminal operated by Maersk’s APM Terminals, giving the carriers an overlap in Egypt, again with spare capacity to help maintain service schedules.
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