by Lloyd's List

31 January 2025 (Lloyd's List) - THE new Gemini Cooperation between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will launch on February 1, more than a year after it was announced.

When all vessels are fully phased in to the new schedule by June 2025, the alliance will boast 57 services and a capacity of 3.7m teu on around 340 vessels.

Those 57 services will be made up of 29 mainline routes and 28 inter-regional shuttles, utilising the alliance’s ‘hub and spoke’ strategy. This relies on key ports, or hubs, with fewer port calls on mainline services and high-capacity shuttle services to link those hubs to smaller ‘spoke’ ports.

The alliance means Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk could become the most important player on some key routes, in particular the transatlantic trade.

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd say the hub and spoke model can achieve reliability of more than 90%, well above the current levels in the container sector.

Hapag-Lloyd chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen said the model could also cut emissions, as larger vessels can operate on the mainline routes, with speeds optimised and idling times reduced.

“Our goal is ambitious yet clear: to achieve industry-leading reliability of over 90% once the network is fully phased-in,” Jansen said.

“This is about meeting our customers’ most important need — dependability — and raising the quality standard across the industry.”