Shipping companies expand Ocean Alliance

Container shipping giant CMA CGM has expanded its Ocean Alliance service, signing a new agreement with executives from Chinese Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), ocean carrier Evergreen and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) to launch a third version of the Ocean Alliance offering, the company said today.

Ocean Alliance Day 3 will launch this April, featuring new offerings such as a seventh service between Asia and Europe. CMA CGM says it will deploy 111 of the 330 container ships in the Ocean Alliance Day 3 product. In all, the new program will include 38 services and offer an estimated carrying capacity of roughly 3.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), according to CMA CGM.

Launched in 2017, Ocean Alliance is an operational agreement between shipping companies that provides service on the major East-West trades: Asia-Northern Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, Asia-Red Sea, Asia-Middle East, Transpacific and Transatlantic.

"This new agreement with our Asian partners will enable us to propose to our customers an unrivaled and competitive service offering," Rodolphe Saade?, CMA CGM group chairman and CEO said in announcing the deal. "It is a milestone in our development strategy. It reinforces the CMA CGM Group in its key position within the industry."