Drewry: What Next for THE Alliance?
Hanjin’s bankruptcy leaves the proposed carrier grouping THE Alliance at a size disadvantage to both its future rivals. Might a replacement be called up?
Drewry says that the container shipping industry is in a state of flux at the moment and nobody can honestly say they know for certain what the landscape will look like in six months from now.
Even before Hanjin Shipping filed for bankruptcy protection the industry was preparing itself for big changes to the make-up of the major shipping alliances, which from April next year are scheduled to downsize from four to three.
However, Hanjin’s impending demise and uncertainty surrounding new membership agreements and regulatory approval have clouded the picture.
Hanjin was one of six carriers along with Hapag-Lloyd, K Line, MOL, NYK and Yang Ming that in May of this year announced they would form THE Alliance to serve the East-West container trades from the second-quarter 2017.
The South Korean carrier was the second largest of the group with 460,000 teu in nominal ship capacity in the East-West routes before it exited the stage in August.
