DP World announced on Wednesday (19 March) that their London Gateway terminal had docked its first ship under the Gemini Cooperation, the shipping collaboration between carriers Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.
The first vessel to come alongside at London Gateway under the Gemini agreement was the Singapore registered Maersk Stadelhorn. The ten-year-old 300m container vessel has a capacity of just under 10,000 TEU. The Stadelhorn is deployed on the Gemini ME2 / IEX India-Europe service, leaving the London Gateway for calls at the ports of Hamburg, Tanger Med, Colombo, Kamarajar, Algeciras, and Rotterdam.
Maersk move
London Gateway is the big winner in the Gemini Cooperation, at least in UK terms. The tie-up between global shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, initially to bolster the efficiency of their East-West shipping routes, meant that Maersk switched its UK ports of call from Felixstowe to London Gateway.
The DP World operated London Gateway is being aggressively developed, including a recent announcement of extended logistics handling facilities. The port is also with the Thames Freeport – a designation it shares with the neighbouring Tilbury, operated by Edinburgh based Forth Ports.
57 varieties of routes
“The arrival of the Maersk Stadelhorn is a testament to the Gemini Cooperation’s confidence in DP World’s UK container terminals and global supply chain solutions network,” said Ernst Schulze, DP World Ports & Terminals Lead for Northern Europe. “The Asia-Europe service will enhance vital international trade routes at London Gateway, advancing our ambition to make the logistics hub the UK’s largest container port within the next five years.”
The Gemini Cooperation has claimed its own record since its inauguration in November of last year. The partners recently announced that it has achieved “an industry leading 90% service reliability in its first month of operation”. When fully operational, Gemini says it will run 57 services across the world with a slot capacity of 3.7m TEU. They put that at nearly 12% of global container shipping capacity. Vessels will call at both of DP World’s UK deep sea container ports at Southampton and London Gateway.
More agile network
DP World Southampton is handling vessels on the Gemini’s Transatlantic AL1 / AT3 service. Last month on 3 February, the MV Leonidio departed Southampton for the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Wilhelmshaven in Northern Europe before crossing the Atlantic to dock at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Saint John in the US and Canada. Shippers on the route, in common with others at Southampton can access DP World’s modal shift incentive, which pays a bounty to move containers inland by rail, as reported by RailFreight.com.
“It is fantastic to witness our new network brought to life in the UK,” said Gary Jeffreys, Managing Director – Maersk UK & Ireland. “London Gateway will play a key role in our service to our customers, as we unlock the benefits of a reliable, flexible and a more agile network better adjusted to the needs of the supply chains of the future.”