Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd is beating a positive drum for 2025 and the introduction of the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk, remaining confident of its target of 90% reliability.

Speaking on The Loadstar Podcast, MD of global commercial development Henrik Schilling said: “I am quietly optimistic about the year, having analysed both our short-term bookings and committed volumes.”

He was speaking despite increasing concern that a new Donald Trump US presidency could result in chaos for global supply chains.

But, Mr Schilling suggested the situation may prove less rocky than some have been suggesting.

“I think Mr Trump’s return will lead to fluctuations in the market, but if we look at the data from his first administration, we did not see global trade volumes shrink, in fact they continued to grow,” he said.

Check out this clip of Mr Schilling, talking about whether people will pay more for better service

Such positivity appears to be holding the German carrier in place just weeks from the 1 February launch of the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk, the two box lines set to deploy some 340 vessels to cover seven trades with 57 services.

Bookings opened at the start of December, and Mr Schilling said: “Uptake, so far, looks promising.”

Nonetheless, there are major question marks surrounding Gemini’s pledge to offer 90% service reliability, given that both carriers’ reliability scores have hovered around 50%.

“Our commitment to reliability is what marks us out as distinct from the others, and we are aiming for an industry-leading schedule reliability of 90% on every Gemini service once the cooperation is phased in,” said Mr Schilling.

“Poor reliability in the industry is not just a big issue for our customers, but is also an issue for our cost base.”

Asked how the partnership’s hub-and-spoke network would achieve a 40% jump in reliability, he said the plan focused around having identified network “vulnerabilities” as being at smaller points, with disruption cascading from minor to major incidents.

To address his, he said, Gemini was based around a network of hubs jointly controlled and managed by the partners.

“Complementing this will be a large and dedicated shuttle network run by the partners and supported by a feeder network, with the various services synchronised to reduce dwell times that lead to major disruptions,” explained Mr Schilling.

Listen to why Hapag-Lloyd is optimistic in this clip from The Loadstar Podcast

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