‘Gemini Cooperation’ is officially open for bookings, kicking off in February

Effective today, the “Gemini Cooperation” ocean network is open for bookings, according to a customer advisory recently issued by Hamburg, Germany-based Hapag-Lloyd.    

As previously reported by LM in January, the Gemini Cooperation is a long-term operational collaboration between Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.P. Moller-Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, which will take effect in February 2025. 

Hapag-Lloyd said that the objective of the Gemini Network is, “to deliver a fast, flexible and interconnected ocean network with industry-leading reliability being its cornerstone.” And it added that the Gemini Cooperation will cover seven trades and offer 57 services, including mainliner and dedicated shuttle services, complemented by feeder services.

“The fleet of our new partnership will consist of around 340 modern and efficient vessels, many ready to adopt cleaner fuels, with a total standing capacity of [around] 3.7 million,” the company said.

Upon the establishment of the Gemini Cooperation in February 2025, Hapag-Lloyd will exit THE Alliance, which also includes Ocean Network Express, Yang Ming and HMM, at the end of January 2025, and Maersk and MSC will conclude their 2M alliance at the same time, which they announced a year ago.

And Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd said that next month the Gemini Cooperation will announce which network it expects to put to sea in February.

“Reliability, connectivity and sustainability are the keywords in the networks we are presenting today, and we are pleased that we now can give our customers full transparency about how we will deliver a best-in-class ocean network so they can begin planning despite a highly dynamic situation,” says Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, in a statement.

And Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc noted in the same statement that the companies are looking forward to the launch of their completely redesigned network next year.

“We are happy to reconfirm that our schedule reliability target remains unchanged irrespective of which network we will phase in,” he said. “We believe our collaboration will raise the bar for reliability to the benefit of our customers and set a new and very high standard in the industry.”  

Based on which network—Trans Suez or Cape or Good Hope—the Gemini Cooperation initially phases in, the companies said that the new network will include 27 or 29 efficient ocean mainliner services, supported by a network of 30 agile, intraregional shuttle services comprised of either 300 or 340 vessels.

Maersk laid out a list of network options for this endeavor, which covers operational insights into how the network has evolved since the January announcement, as well as an alternative Cape of Good Hope network due to the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea, including:

• continue monitoring the situation in the Middle East very closely and hope that the situation will soon be resolved;
• presenting a network that transits through the Red Sea for the start of the Gemini partnership in February 2025;
• presenting an alternative Cape of Good Hope network following the same design principles and developed to deliver the reliability goals of the Gemini partnership;
• returning to the Red Sea as soon as it is safe to do so, but as the situation remains highly dynamic, it will be prepared for either scenario—a return to the Red Sea, or a continuation of the alternative route south of the Cape of Good Hope;
• continue monitoring the situation and update customers as soon as additional information can be released; and
• irrespective of whether the Gemini partnership will begin with a Trans Suez or Cape or Good Hope network, the ambition is to provide industry-leading reliability (90% SeaIntel when fully phased in)

Maersk added in January that the Gemini Cooperation will cover seven trades: Asia/U.S. West Coast, Asia/U.S. East Coast, Asia/Middle East, Asia/Mediterranean, Asia/North Europe, Middle East–India/Europe and Transatlantic. And it added it is comprised of 26 mainline services, with the mainline ocean services complemented by a global network of dedicated shuttles centered around owned and/or controlled transshipment hubs, with 14 shuttle services in Europe, 4 in the Middle East, 13 in Asia and 1 in the Gulf of Mexico, noting that these shuttle services will offer a fast connection with flexible capacity between hubs and ports served by shuttle services, and vice versa.

From a sustainability perspective, through this collaboration, the companies respectively have what Hapag-Lloyd called the most ambitious decarbonization targets in the ocean shipping sector, with Maersk anticipating being net-zero in 2040 and Hapag-Lloyd in 2045.

Philip Damas, director and head of the supply chain advisors practice at London-based Drewry, told LM in January that Drewry understood that talks between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd started fairly soon after 2M divorce was announced and that they quickly found they were “like-minded” with complementary assets (both ships and terminals) and committed to decarbonization.

“The carriers say that there is a contractual commitment to quality—aiming for 90% reliability—which is new and something positive for the industry, if quality does improve,” he said. “Services will include fewer ports by design with concentration on controlled hubs.”