The Network of the Future: Service network update

In January 2024, Hapag-Lloyd AG (Hapag-Lloyd) and Maersk A/S (Maersk) announced a new long-term operational collaboration under the name of Gemini – referred to as the “Gemini Cooperation”. The Maersk side of this is referred to as the Network of the Future. The operational collaboration covers the Ocean freight network on East West trades and came into effect on 01 February 2025.

The decision to implement the Cape of Good Hope network has been taken after thorough consideration and is driven by ongoing safety concerns in the Red Sea region.

The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas brings much-needed humanitarian relief and hope for peace to be restored, and the announcement from the Houthi organisation on their plans to cease attacks in the area with peace talks ongoing, is a very welcome step in the right direction towards stability and eventual normality for the global shipping industry.

The process to bring the current conflict between Israel and Hamas to an end is dependent on a multi-phased roadmap continuing to be met, and as such the predictability of the situation remains a complex challenge. Furthermore, due to the continued tensions in the region, the security risk of commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb strait remains high.

With this in mind – and the safety of our crew, vessels, and your cargo being our utmost priority – Maersk will continue to sail around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope until safe passage through the area is ensured for the longer term. We have taken this decision to ensure stability and certainty across your supply chain. Returning to the area without fully ensuring safe passage could result in our networks needing to be adjusted again, which would prove complicated both operationally and indeed for supply chain management.

The network began phasing-in on 01 February 2025. The phase in will not impact or change the way you and our other customers engage with us for orders, documentation and invoice management (via Maersk.com) or customer support.

A physical phase-in and phase-out of this scale is complex and has and continues to require comprehensive preparation work. As such there will be a transition period where we will phase out and phase in vessels to match the structure of the new network design. We can confirm that:

• All cargo that sailed out of Asia (on Asia services) and out of Europe (for Transatlantic services) prior to 1 February was, in alignment with MSC, 2M cargo until the vessels have completed their roundtrip
• All cargo loaded on sailings from head haul region commencing from 1 February and onwards will be Gemini sailings.
• During the period from 1 February until end of June, there will be some overlap between the networks, depending on the geographical market, until all roundtrips are finalized.

Our goal is to deliver a smooth operational transition. We will ensure clear upfront communications during booking stage on how your cargo will be managed by us during the transition period.

Our ambition is to deliver a flexible and interconnected ocean network with historically unmatched and industry-leading reliability. We have set the ambitious target of aiming to deliver schedule reliability of above 90% (SeaIntel) once the network is fully phased in.

We are not changing how we do transshipment today. However, there has been strong invested in the APM Terminals since 2020, allowing for technological and physical advancements like industry leading cranes and expansion of space, alongside the newest digital systems being used.

Productivity of APM Terminals’ hubs increase significantly; APM Terminal’s hubs are among the highest performing in the world according to a report from Drewry, an independent maritime research and consulting services company.

Over the past year, of the total volume moved in our current network, 60% of was moved via transshipment product. In the Network of the Future commencing from February 2025, 66% of total volume will be moved via transshipment product.

AMP Terminals has invested in state-of-the-art equipment, expanded terminals and introduced sophisticated tech to allow for streamlined preparation, planning and enhanced operations, which in turn allows for better reliability.

The Network of the Future has built robust contingency plans into the network, leveraging the strategically controlled hubs to minimise the impact of disruptions.

Additionally, the APMT hubs in the Network of the future, are almost exclusively operated for Maersk Ocean and its VSA partners; this provides flexibility for adjustment in berthing line up, be that to accommodate seasonal swings or contingency scenarios.

We have set the ambitious target of delivering schedule reliability of above 90% once the network is fully phased in. The new operational collaboration combines the expertise of two strong partners and will deliver improved reliability through:

• An operator controlled modern fleet and dedicated teams
• The 29 mainliner services will be ‘leaner’ as they will have on average almost half the amount of port calls per service rotation compared to a typical Asia – Europe service. This means the average number of stops a container will make between the origin and final destination will decrease significantly. With ports being a major source of unreliability, this will reduce the opportunities for disruptions along the way and improve reliability.
• Serving as an extension to the mainliner service, 28 lean intra-regional shuttles connect hubs to strategic gateways and will mostly have 2 load port calls per service. This set-up reduces the overall risk of disruptions and allows isolation of the operational bottleneck when it arises. The shuttles will also have the right priority in the hubs to ensure the connectivity. All these will largely protect us from disruptions and ensure high reliability on overall system.
• The hub terminals linking mainliners and shuttles demonstrate exceptional productivity and reliability. APM Terminals and Hanseatic Global Terminals (HGT) have equity presence and a level of operational control in the majority of these hubs and will continue to invest in seamless and efficient connectivity.

The expectation and ambition are that we will see an overall positive effect on the rest of Maersk’s Ocean offering when Network of the Future is implemented.

Although the physical changes to the North-South network at first will be limited to window changes at hubs to ensure optimisation of berthing capacity and better overall connections, our core ambition remains a focused qualitative strategy for our entire network.

For future changes to the North-South network scope, quality and reliability are key priorities for design concepts, which we will continue to implement as we move forward.