Ocean Alliance increases market share on the Asia-North Europe route

Container ship of COSCO SHIPPING (Photo: COSCO SHIPPING)

In this edition of Sea-Intelligence's 640 Sunday Spotlight, the analyst looked at developments in capacity share among the three shipping alliances on the trans-Pacific and Eurasian routes. Capacity share is the proportion of total capacity deployed in each trade route operated by the three shipping alliances.

On the Asia-North America West Coast trade, alliances collectively reduced capacity share, especially during the pandemic, when capacity outside alliances was deployed aggressively. Ocean Alliance regained its market share in 2023, but 2M Alliance did not and is now in a lower position than before the pandemic. On the Asia-North America East Coast trade, 2M lost most of its pre-pandemic profits, while both Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance also lost capacity market share compared to the same period before the pandemic.

In the Asia-Mediterranean region, THE Alliance has gained a bit of market share during the pandemic and combined with Ocean Alliance's decline, the two alliances are essentially evenly positioned after 2M .

However, the most important change is seen in the Asia-North Europe region (as shown in Figure 1). THE Alliance maintained a relatively stable presence on the shipping route throughout the entire analysis period. However, 2M has shown a sustained decline and has been overtaken by Ocean Alliance. This was a development that took place essentially over the entire period and was therefore unrelated to the dissolution of the original 2M Alliance. Essentially, shipping lines CMA CGM, COSCO and Evergreen have clearly gained ground in Northern Europe, with relatively low costs compared to Maersk and MSC.

Capacity market share on the Asia-North Europe route of the three container shipping alliances (Photo: Sea-Intelligence)

Source: Phaata.com (According to Sea-Intelligence) 

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