MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Company has struck two new key arrangements with rivals as it positions for even greater dominance when the 2M partnership with Maersk ends early next year.

The line, which has opened up a massive capability gap on Maersk and other competitors through relentless pursuit of second-hand tonnage and the booking of almost two million TEU of newbuilding capacity, will partially plug the gap in THE Alliance’s global offering when Hapag-Lloyd departs to pair with Maersk in the Gemini Cooperation next February.

Announced overnight in Europe, MSC will slot-exchange with remaining THE Alliance members One Network Express (ONE), Yang Ming and HMM on nine Asia-Europe services. At the same time MSC has renewed a trans-Pacific co-operation agreement with Israeli carrier ZIM, covering three years of service-sharing between Asia and the North American West and East Coasts.

In conjunction with the first deal THE Alliance will re-brand as the Premium Alliance next February.

Yesterday’s announcements came as MSC revealed details of its post-2M standalone network, which it describes as providing an independent, competitive and complete network on east/west trades.

The network comprises 5 trades with 34 loops incorporating 7 loops for Asia North Europe, 6 loops for Asia Mediterranean, 4 loops for Asia North America West Coast, 6 loops for Asia North America East Coast and 11 loops for the Transatlantic Network; plus optionality of weekly services via Suez with more than 1,900 direct port pairs or the Cape of Good Hope with more than 1,800 direct port pairs.

CEO Soren Toft said: “We are delighted to reveal our future standalone East/West network for all clients. Customers will benefit from MSC’s unmatched connectivity and direct corridors, coupled with consistent high quality of service.

“With the addition of select slot swap agreements we will provide complete coverage across all East/West routes. Furthermore, as we assume full operational control of our network, we can today offer clients both Suez and Cape of Good Hope routing options. This announcement represents an important milestone in the evolution of our global network and the vision of MSC’s founding family,” Mr. Toft said.

MSC said the 2025 East/West network and its options would not impact the tonnage or deployment for any other routes provided by MSC globally. For full details of the future East/West network please can be found at https://www.msc.com/en/solutions/our-trade-services/east-west-network