The information comes just days after the huge vessel sharing agreement received the green light from US maritime regulators to take sail on US trades when the alliance begins operations on April 1.
Approval has also been received from South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the alliance says its services are compliant with EU competition rules following a self-assessment compliance review. The master agreement of the Ocean Alliance is currently with China’s Ministry of Transport.
Members of the Ocean Alliance signed a document entitled the Day One Product, which sets out the proposed network, including port rotation for each service loop. The Day One network intends to deploy around 350 container vessels with an estimated total carrying capacity of 3.5 million teu to provide one of the most comprehensive service coverage in the market on the following trade lanes.
In a statement, the member lines said vessel deployment details for each service loop would be released around end of November. This is information that shippers have been urgently seeking, especially on the Asia-Europe trade, as they begin negotiating annual service contracts. THE Alliance is the second giant vessel sharing agreement that will start operations on April 1.
Rodolphe Saadé, vice chairman of the CMA CGM Group, said the Ocean Alliance was the largest operational agreement ever made between shipping companies. “By offering more ports and more direct calls, as well as better transit times, we will provide our customers with unmatched quality services,” he said.
As the vessel sharing agreement’s main contributor, CMA CGM will deploy a fleet of 119 vessels with a 35\% capacity share. The four partners will share their capacity on several routes using almost 350 vessels of about 3.5 million teu in total capacity.
Ocean Alliance would have the dominant capacity position on the two largest trades, with a nearly 35 percent share of the Asia-North America trade, and a roughly 39 percent share of the Asia-Europe trade, according to shipping analyst Alphaliner.
The trans-Pacific market will see the largest coverage by the Ocean Alliance with 20 loops, 145 weekly calls and 52 ports. In a statement issued via CMA CGM, the alliance said its trans-Pacific services would offer “the most comprehensive market coverage and geographic consistency by loop for optimized transit times to main markets.” Vessel deployment details for each service loop will be released at the end of November.
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