The Federal Maritime Commission has opened a 12-day comment period allowing interested members of the public to respond to Maersk and Hapag Lloyd’s newly filed vessel-sharing agreement, the Gemini Cooperation Agreement.
The agreement will allow Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to globally coordinate their vessel operations. The parties propose operating under a structure whereby major ports of call will be served directly (the Mainline Network), and other ports will be served by shuttle services (the Shuttle Network).
“Activities conducted under agreements filed with the Commission and in effect are not subject to federal antitrust laws. If the Commission takes no action, the Gemini Agreement will become effective on July 15, 2024,” according to a statement from the FMC.
The announcement of the planned collaboration was made in January.
Alphaliner said at the time that it would disrupt the current shipping alliances landscape, merging the fleets of both companies and creating a pool of around 290 vessels with a combined capacity of 3.4 million TEUs. According to the research company, Maersk is expected to deploy 60% of these vessels, while Hapag-Lloyd will account for the remaining 40%. The companies have set an ambitious target of achieving above 90% schedule reliability once the network is fully operational.
