The vessel sharing agreement (VSA) of Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) has been approved by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), and is expected to start its East-West network of operations by early next year.
In an official release, Maersk Line said that its proposed partnership with MSC, which was announced July 10 this year and will be called 2M, can now be implemented following the favorable decision by FMC, the U.S. maritime agency regulating activities over American waters.
The 10-year vessel sharing agreement of the world’s two biggest shipping lines will cover the Asia-Europe, trans-Atlantic, and trans-Pacific trades.
“The agreement was subject to approval by relevant authorities. Today, the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) announced that it will allow the VSA to come into effect,” said Maersk Line in its October 9 statement.
“The U.S. was the only remaining jurisdiction where the VSA had to obtain approval. Maersk Line and MSC can now implement the VSA as planned,” it added.
“We are very pleased that the FMC has decided to allow our VSA with MSC to become effective. In our view, this is a win-win situation. Due to a larger and more cost efficient network, we can continue to provide our customers in North America, Europe and Asia competitive and reliable container shipping services. We look forward to starting operations on our new East/West network in January 2015,” said Vincent Clerc, chief trade and marketing officer of Maersk Line.
In the new East-West network, Maersk Line offers more services and ports: 21 strings vs. 18 today; 1,036 port pairs vs. 788 today; and 291 ports called vs. 212 today.
The VSA will also result in cost savings for the partners through the deployment of larger and more efficient vessels and improved utilization. In addition, they will be able to lower CO2 emissions, said the statement.
In total, the VSA has an estimated capacity of 2.1 million twenty-foot-equivalent units, or about 185 vessels. Maersk Line will contribute around 55 percent of the total capacity.
Photo: Russavia
