by Lloyd's List

10 September (Lloyd's List) - RESHUFFLED container alliances will boost the demand for feeder ships, the Capital Link conference in London was told today.

Box giant Mediterranean Shipping Co announced a standalone network yesterday, while The Alliance rebranded as the Premier Alliance. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will start their Gemini Cooperation next year.

MPC Container Ships chief executive Constantin Baack said the Gemini alliance’s hub-and-spoke model would service new ports, not the main east-west ports as seen in the past.

“There will be additional feeders needed to service these hubs,” Baack said.

It would become clear when the alliance started “to what extent they can work with the intra-regional operators”.

“I’m sure the Unifeeders and others of this world will have a significant benefit from it,” Baack said.

There was also a scheme to shuttle cargo from those hubs to other main cities, but this would need feeder ships as well.

Baack observed that the “very sizeable” Gemini Cooperation was aimed at making services more reliable, and cutting costs.

Euroseas and EuroDry chief financial officer Anastasios Aslidis said any change to harmonise and create efficiencies in the market would also go the other way.

Aslidis said the new alliances would be bad for tramp shipowners in the short term, in theory. But a lack of feederships, and their average age boded well for the segment.

“It goes a lot of ways, but I think down the line we will all benefit from this,” Aslidis said.