2M MSC Maersk Alliance
Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company, respectively the first and second largest shipping company in the world market for scheduled services cooperating since 10 January 2015 under the 10-year vessel sharing agreement called “2M” covering all east-west maritime traffic of the two carriers, today announced a reorganization of the lines connecting Asia with Northern Europe, which are the busiest routes in the 2M alliance network.
The two companies have explained that with the restructuring of the services Asia-North Europe, that will become operative in the course of the third quarter of this year, will come reduced the overlapping of ports of call touched from different lines, with the scope to cut the number of direct ports of call, will come diminished the speed of the ships increasing the reliability of the schedule and – they have assured Maersk Line and MSC – will be maintained competitive transit time.
In particular, the services with Germany and Holland will be further improved with the reduction to four days of the transit time westbound of the lines with the ports of Bremerhaven and Rotterdam, while the transit time of the eastbound route Rotterdam-Shanghai will be reduced by five days.
MSC has specified that the strategic port hub of Antwerp will also be included in four of the five rotations operated (Albatros, Shogun eastbound, Lion and Swan westbound).
