Drewry: Launch of new alliances will cause delays

Immediate disruption following the launch of the Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance seems inevitable, according to shipping consultant Drewry.

Both the Ocean Alliance, which includes CMA CGM, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Line and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), and THE Alliance, which consists of Hapag-Lloyd, NYK Line, MOL, “K” Line and Yang Ming Line, will launch on April 1 this year.

According to Drewry, a number of ports have yet to be formally assigned to new services, at least publically, which would make it very difficult for ports and terminals to properly plan their future workloads.