Daily Maersk kicks off: A lion in winter?

   Today marks the official start of Maersk Line’s new Daily Maersk product between Asia and northern Europe.
   The Danish line will offer daily cut-offs at four origin ports in Asia and guaranteed transportation times to three key northern European ports, using its Asia-Europe service network and 70 own-operated vessels.
   The service is unique in the liner shipping industry in that Maersk has articulated a service promise that is taken as a given in many other industries – that a service will be offered every day and that a product will arrive on a pre-specified day.
   While most everyone – from shippers to even other liner carriers – have lauded Maersk’s endeavor, not everyone is completely enamored with the way the line has characterized its service as groundbreaking.
   Rodolphe Saade, executive officer at CMA CGM, said earlier this month at the Journal of Commerce-organized TPM Asia conference in Shenzhen that lines should be expected to provide the service that Maersk has advertised in a grandstand manner.
   “I congratulate Maersk on a new marketing campaign,” Saade said wryly. “It’s our duty to provide customers with reliable service and information. If you want to make a big marketing campaign about it, good for you.”
   It should be noted that CMA CGM, the third biggest container line in the world, is a key partner of Maersk on both the Asia-Europe and transpacific lanes.
   Beyond the bluster of marketing campaigns, there’s a more tangible prospect underlying the commencement of Daily Maersk. The world’s biggest line could theoretically gain market share simply because of the need to deliver on its promise.
   Here’s why: Daily Maersk compels Maersk to avoid Asia-Europe layups on the premise that it would prevent them from delivering on their promise. Yet if other lines pull capacity from Asia to Europe during the slack winter season, Maersk stands to gain market share, even if it loses money in the short term from poor rates.
   The timing of the start of the service shouldn’t be ignored. It’s essentially beginning as the peak season for Asia-to-Europe container shipping is winding down.
   With Maersk committed to providing daily cut-offs at Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, and Tanjung Pelepas through the winter, it will be up to other lines to rationalize capacity for the industry as a whole. Maersk is essentially saying, though not in so many words, that it won’t be pulling Asia-Europe capacity during the winter.
   So other lines and alliances, particularly those operating smaller vessels with higher slot costs, will be left to decide whether it’s worth it to stay in the game or pull capacity and potentially lose market share.
   Keep in mind that Asia-Europe demand has grown this year – in the region of 8 percent. It’s not necessarily that carriers are scrambling for diminishing amounts of cargo in this trade, it’s just that there’s been too much capacity injected this year to keep rates up at desirable levels. So if lines pull capacity on Asia-Europe services and leave Maersk to lead the line over winter, they could find it hard to drag those customers back, particularly if the lost customers become enamored with Maersk’s daily cut-offs and guaranteed delivery dates.
   This is not to suggest that Maersk will swallow up all of the demand left behind by lines that choose to shut down Asia-Europe services for the winter. It’s just to point out that the timing of the start of Daily Maersk puts the line in a quite advantageous position in a volatile and unforgiving market for carriers. – Eric Johnson