Beginning on February 1st of next year, the Gemini Cooperation—which consists of the two major ocean container shipping companies—will operate using a new hub-and-spoke strategy for mainliner and transshipment services that is intended to improve dependability. At the Xeneta Summit in Amsterdam on Thursday, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen and Maersk Vice President and Head of Ocean Network Product Kenni Skotte participated in a panel discussion to address how Gemini can meet its goal of 90% service reliability when the market’s overall reliability for ocean container shipping carriers is only 53%.
Gemini Cooperation is confident in its ability to achieve a 90% schedule reliability, covering seven trades and offering 57 services, including mainliner and dedicated shuttle services. Habben Jansen and Skotte discussed the Xeneta Summit, stating that increasing the use of transshipment networks will provide more stable and reliable services for shippers. They believe that if they discuss this again next year, they will have proven its effectiveness.
Transshipment services will rise from 35% to 45%, according to Habben Jansen, although he stressed that they would carry out this adjustment at the hubs under their control in a more organized and planned way. He described this as a conscious decision, adding that these hubs had more capacity than was strictly required. He claimed that their goal in running the hubs was to make sure the network ran efficiently rather than to make money. More cranes and more room than would normally be available at numerous terminals, he said.
He added that the system’s overall design, which prioritized the capacity to isolate delays, was the reason for their trust. He compared this to the existing state of affairs, where a small delay frequently escalates into major interruptions that have an impact on the entire network.
Due to the current turmoil in the Red Sea, the Gemini Cooperation just stated that when it starts operations in February, its ships will go past Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Habben Jansen and Skotte both affirmed that this won’t affect Gemini’s goal of 90% dependability.
Habben Jansen stated that their network can cover both challenging scenarios, such as the Red Sea passage and Cape of Good Hope, while maintaining industry-leading reliability. The Gemini Cooperation is designed to meet evolving customer needs in a dynamic and volatile industry, using a hub-and-spoke model to maintain global coverage.
Lastly, Skotte emphasized that they thought their new, cutting-edge ocean network will set a new, extremely high bar in the industry and greatly improve schedule reliability for the benefit of their customers.
