Highlights
- 2025 Q1 alliance benchmarking characterized by the reshuffling of alliances, with Gemini and Premier kicking off and 2M and THEA phasing out
- Gemini steals the show with their 90% reliability promise - and by and large upholds that promise, albeit on a declining trend since its Feb inception
- The other relevant groupings — OCEAN Alliance, Premier Alliance, MSC outside Premier and non-alliance services — all hover around 30% in a packed field for second place
Volatile quarter for all alliances
As described in our kick off piece on global developments, this quarter was always going to be volatile. Two alliances are still phasing out, and two others are kicking off, one including MSC as an outside partner.
Our CEO, Simon Sundboell, was also able to offer a sneak peek at the February numbers during TPM in Long Beach - but now the quarter is complete, all eyes are fixed on how the alliances manage to differentiate. And whether Gemini can live up to their much-touted 90% promise.
Good start for Gemini
And on the latter topic: while both Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have been cautioning that it will take several months before the network is fully in place, they're off to a good start (Choose tab: "Alliance overview") at 86% for 2025 Q1. You would expect as much, though, as the network starts off with a blank slate, all vessel positions at zero as they start out on their respective new services.
Difficult position for second-best
That, however, has not been the case for Premier, the other newly formed alliance. They ended February with a second-best 46% on-time percentage, but already dropped to 25% in March.
That the field for second-best is crowded is evidenced by Premier at 31% OTP for 2025 Q1, OCEAN at 25%, MSC outside Premier at 22% and non-alliance services at 30% (on E/W services, incl Middle East trades). Each of these four groupings are on a continued downwards trajectory since 2024 Q1.
And one last funny fact: within the Gemini Cooperation, Hapag-Lloyd (90% OTP) are slightly outpacing their partner, Maersk (84%) (Choose tab: "Tables - vessel operator"). That may have to do with the number of contributed vessels (approximately two thirds by Maersk) and the trade lane assignments (Maersk are long on the shuttles, for examples); but for now, the bragging rights sit in Hamburg.
Further eeSea resources
As we continue to improve the eeSea platform and this Schedule Reliability Scorecard, we are making the above referenced insights available through interactive and continuously updated dashboards.
You can sign up for a free 14-day trial - and thereafter find the dashboards under 'Insights' in the left-hand menu. For detailed analysis, you are most welcome to reach out to contact@eesea.com.