Dive Brief:
- MSC CEO Søren Toft is not ruling out "alliance-type" collaborations with Maersk in the future despite the upcoming breakup of 2M in 2025, the shipping line executive said Monday at the TPM23 Conference by S&P Global Market Intelligence in Long Beach, California.
- The statement came as the CEO described the two shipping lines' existing capacity-sharing agreements as part of the alliance. “We collaborate on the six East and West trades, it could be in the future we'll collaborate on some swaps and stuff like that,” Toft said.
- However, MSC decided breaking up the alliance was the right solution for the current market, Toft said. “We believe we have the network and the future network that’s going to make us competitive. And obviously, there will always be certain advantages or supremacy to operate on our own.”
Dive Insight:
The formation of 2M and the alliances that followed came at a time where the industry pursued a “response to years of price pressure and a need to find ways to get more economies of scale, efficiencies, [and] deploy larger ships,” Toft said.
After 10 years, the market is no longer the same with most of those inefficiencies being a thing of the past, Toft added. Different circumstances call for certain changes to shipping agreements.
In January, Maersk and MSC said in a joint news release they had mutually agreed to discontinue their years-old alliance as of 2025. At TPM23, Toft reiterated the two shipping lines' differing growth strategies contributed to the decision.
"I think the trajectory of Maersk is different than the trajectory of MSC," Toft said. “At the end, we decided to part ways. We have two years to do that.”
Maersk has sought to position itself as an end-to-end supply chain provider by acquiring a number of companies in air cargo, fulfillment and trucking over the years.
Meanwhile, MSC has invested in logistics operators such as Bolloré Africa Logistics and MedLog, it has largely remained focused on ocean shipping. The carrier upped its capacity through new vessel orders and by "aggressively raiding the second-hand and charter markets," according to a Drewry report.
Whether it's with “2M or no 2M,” Toft said MSC will not operate differently in the future. “We have a strong commitment to shipping.”
