2M Alliance shakes up Asia-North Europe trade

Alliance members Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. said their Asia-North Europe AE9/Condor service will cease operations Sept. 14 and will be deployed as a seasonal service if sufficient demand permits.    Ocean carriers Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co., members of the 2M Alliance, said their joint service between Asia and North Europe, dubbed AE9 by Maersk Line and Condor by MSC, will cease operations Sept. 14 and will be deployed as a seasonal service if sufficient demand permits.
   The AE9/Condor has a rotation of Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Chiwan, Tanjung Pelepas, Barcelona, Tanger, Southampton, Le Havre, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Tanger, Colombo, Chiwan and Ningbo, as illustrated through ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting.
   The service uses 10 vessels, each with an average capacity of 10,165 TEUs. Maersk Line provides seven of the vessels, while MSC provides the additional three vessels.
   In addition to the AE9/Condor, the 2M currently operates five other services between Asia and North Europe — the AE1/Shogun, AE2/Swan, AE5/Albatross, AE6/TP6/Lion/Pearl and AE10/Silk — as illustrated through BlueWater Reporting’s Capacity Report. The six services combined deploy 89,223 TEUs each week through the use of 72 vessels.
   Overall, 23 shipping services participate of the Asia-to-North Europe trade, however the AE5/Albatross and AE10/Silk are the only two shipping services on the trade that currently have an average vessel capacity over 18,000 TEUs.
   Maersk Line and MSC, which have operated as the 2M Alliance on major east-west trades since January 2015, said they are making additional changes to their service network, which will be announced in further detail next week.