Sea Intelligence noted changes in market shares among the three largest shipping alliances post-COVID-19, citing Ocean Alliance — whose members are CMA CGM, Cosco, and Evergreen — as the biggest gainer, particularly in the Asia-North Europe trade.
The Danish maritime data analysis firm said on the Asia-North America West Coast, the alliances collectively lost capacity market shares, especially during the pandemic, when capacity outside of the alliance structures was heavily deployed.
Ocean Alliance regained their share in 2023, but 2M did not and is currently positioned lower than pre-pandemic.
On the Asia-North America East Coast, 2M lost much of the pre-pandemic gain, whereas both Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance also lost capacity market share compared to the same pre-pandemic period.
On Asia-Mediterranean, THE Alliance gained a bit of share during the pandemic and combined with the decline of Ocean Alliance; the two alliances are essentially evenly positioned behind 2M.
"The most important change, however, is seen in Asia-North Europe," Alan Murphy, chief executive officer at Sea-Intelligence, said.
[Source: Sea-Intelligence]
He noted that THE Alliance has maintained a relatively stable presence on the trade lane across the entire analysed period. 2M, however, has seen a constant erosion, which has been taken over by Ocean Alliance.
"This is a development taking place over essentially the entire period and is therefore not linked to the beginning dissolution of 2M," Murphy said.
"Essentially, CMA CGM, COSCO and Evergreen have clearly gained a position in North Europe at the relative expense of Maersk and MSC," he added.
The world's top two container lines — MSC and Maersk — have cooperated since 2015 in the 2M alliance, a partnership that will end in 2025. Total 2M capacity is 2.82 million TEUs, representing 11% of global capacity, according to Alphaliner.
Meanwhile, THE Alliance — between ONE, Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, and Yang Ming — has a combined deployed capacity of 3.03 million TEUs, which represents 12% of global capacity.
The Ocean Alliance has a total capacity of 4.3 million TEUs accounting for 16% of global fleet capacity.