Sea-Intelligence has analysed the changes in the market share of shipping line alliances compared to the previous year.
Figure 1 depicts the Asia-North America West Coast market share for both March 2024 and March 2025, for the alliances operating in two different timelines.
The analyst company noted that the term ‘other’ in Figure 1 refers to the capacity across all non-alliance services, from both non-alliance carriers, and alliance carriers operating independent services outside of the alliance cooperation.
READ: Blank sails set to rise on Asia-NAWC
Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, said: “Here we find a slight loss of market share for Ocean Alliance. It is not because they are reducing their capacity, but simply because the other carriers are injecting capacity at a higher pace than Ocean Alliance itself.
“They do, however, clearly remain the largest alliance, operating 35 per cent of the planned capacity. Premier Alliance is the interesting one to watch.”
READ: US retail inventories continue to rise sharply
Despite Hapag-Lloyd’s departure from THE Alliance, Premier Alliance retains nearly the same market share as THE Alliance. Gemini Cooperation is undoubtedly the smallest player in the Transpacific trade into the NAWC.
Sea-Intelligence discovered a similar pattern on Asia-North America East Coast as well, where Ocean Alliance continues to hold the largest market share, with Premier Alliance maintaining a similar market share as the outgoing THE Alliance, while Gemini Corporation has the smallest market share.
The difference between Premier Alliance and Gemini Cooperation, however, is only 0.2 percentage points in favour of Premier Alliance.
Murphy added: “The changes in the competitive landscape between the carrier alliances is likely to create a significant competitive pressure, as the carriers adjust to the new situation. For shippers, this is likely to manifest itself as a downwards pressure on freight rates.”
