Virtually everyone involved in the containerized sea freight in these days are asking what the future of THE Alliance, the Vessel, will be Sharing Agreement, i.e. the agreement for the sharing of loading on container carriers used on certain routes, which is born from the collaboration between a European company, Hapag-Lloyd, and several Asian and Middle Eastern companies, and that it is Became operational in April 2017 ( of 13 May 2016). The question is what will happen to the VSA once the European partner exits, at the end of the next January, by THE Alliance to start the operations of the New Vessel Sharing Agreement with Denmark's Maersk Line announced In recent days ( of 17 January 2024).

On Monday, Chih-Chien (Bronson) Hsieh, the former president of the Taiwanese company Yang Ming which, together with South Korea's HMM and ONE of Singapore are the current other partners of THE Alliance, he has the hypothesis that the replacement of Hapag-Lloyd could be the Taiwanese Wan Hai Lines ( of 22 January 2024). A prediction that seems destined not to come true being perhaps currently Yang Ming, HMM and ONE looking for a a new partner that, like Hapag-Lloyd, can guarantee a solid coverage of the markets with which the European economy has the most Substantial trade. It doesn't look like a company Asian regional sector, such as WHL, can respond to their Needs.

Several observatories - and we at inforMARE We agree with them - they believe that the only alternative currently viable and plausible for both Yang Ming, HMM and ONE that of propose themselves as allies of the Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company, which is currently the first containerised ocean carrier world championship in terms of fleet capacity. MSC is currently partner of Maersk Line in the Vessel Sharing Agreement called 2M which will be operational until January 2025, after which the Danish company to start cooperating with Hapag-Lloyd within the framework of the VSA called Gemini Cooperation.

It remains to be seen whether the stability of the VSA, which is currently links Hapag-Lloyd with Yang Ming, HMM and ONE, where the capacity of the German company's fleet of almost two million TEUs is balanced by the overall capacity equal to 3.3 million TEUs of the fleets of the three companies can be kept in a VSA where MSC, with a fleet with a capacity of almost six million TEUs and a network of services that covers the whole world, would be a partner predominant.

The only other European shipping company with suitable to those probably sought by Yang Ming, HMM and ONE is the French CMA CGM which, however, is currently engaged alongside the Chinese group COSCO and the Taiwanese Evergreen as part of the Vessel Sharing Agreement called Ocean Alliance which is set to expire at the end of 2030.

In the meantime, THE Alliance's current partners are left with no other than reassuring customers about the smooth running of the maritime services under the Vessel Sharing Agreement It will be in force until the end of January 2025. Thus Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Ocean Network Express and Yang Ming did so today Marine Transport, which have ensured their constant commitment to to ensure their close cooperation throughout 2024.