Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has increased capacity market share for stand-alone services (services supplied outside the 2M alliance) on the Transpacific and Asia-Europe routes.
With the 2M Alliance between the two major shipping lines, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Maersk, ending in February 2025 and Maersk joining Hapag-Lloyd to establish the Gemini Cooperation, it appears that MSC is already moving its attention to their own-operated services.
Figure 1 compares MSC’s share of Asia-North Europe capacity to that of Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, the two other significant carriers operating stand-alone services in the trade lane.
Sea-Intelligence noted that this rise for MSC should be seen not just in the context of the present market pressures, but also in light of the end of the 2M cooperation.
MSC is beginning to carve off services before to the 2M termination date, whilst Maersk is not.
Sea-Intelligence reported that MSC began doing this before to the Red Sea crisis, albeit there was a noticeable increase when the crisis began.
On the Asia-Mediterranean route, the move from MSC to higher stand-alone capacity share precedes the Red Sea crisis, with MSC stand-alone services accounting for around 9 per cent of deployed capacity in the trade lane by 2023-Q2.
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A similar development can be seen in the two Transpacific trade lanes, notably from Asia to North America’s East Coast, where MSC’s stand-alone capacity market share grew from 3 per cent to 6 per cent in 2023-Q3.
On the Asia-North America West Coast trade lane, MSC stand-alone services were introduced when the pandemic market tightened in 2020-Q3, and have maintained a relatively consistent capacity market share of around 6 per cent, with the exception of a temporary increase to around 12 per cent during the pandemic’s peak in late 2021.
Recently, MSC announced adjustments to its standalone services Swan and Britannia.
