b'APRIL 19 - MAY 9, 2021OCEAN CARRIER REVIEW 7(TRIPARTITEcontinued from page 6) Ocean Carrier Alliances are nuts and bolts features of ashippingalliance,capacity planningiswhatmakestheTotal Owned Chartered Orderbookwholealliancesystemwork.Ocean Carrier Ships TEU Ships TEUShips TEU Ships TEUTheprincipalmechanism used to assign a carriers con- 2M Alliancetributionsorslotallocations1 Maersk 7104,122,7022982,280,0904121,842,6121744,036 over various stringsis the slot2 Mediterranean Shipping Co. 5913,902,6611571,047,0704342,855,59122451,544 charteragreements(SCAs).Total1,301 8,025,3634553,327,1608464,698,20339495,580 The slots are chartered by a carrier from another carrier(s)THE Alliancefor a specific period of time on5 Hapag-Lloyd 2551,774,1321121,052,321143721,8116141,600 a vessel, generally on a desig- 6 ONE (Ocean Network Express) 2231,612,25069500,9711541,111,27915266,152 natedserviceroute. Theslot8 Hyundai Merchant Marine 74750,87228449,07446301,798696,060 charterer issues its own bill of9 Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. 89628,46746193,81343434,65412125,598 lading and for all intents andTotal 6414,765,7212552,196,179 386 2,569,542 39 629,410 purposes, the slot is part of the carriers portfolio. Ocean AllianceAlthough, SCAs are gen-erallythoughtofasafunc- 3 COSCO Group (includes OOCL) 5013,022,1251771,567,4233241,454,70212276,000 tionuniquetoanalliance,4 CMA CGM Group 5583,019,4691181,030,3284401,989,14123354,024 they also exist between carri- 7 Evergreen Line 1991,327,918111639,76488688,15474703,573 ers outside the alliances. TheTotal1,258 7,369,5124063,237,5158524,131,9971091,333,597 samecanbesaidforvesselAlliances Total 3,200 20,160,596 1,116 8,760,854 2,084 11,399,742 187 2,458,587sharingagreements(VSAs) whereby a ship is shared bySource: Alphaliner 02/04/21anothercarrierandlikethe SCAs, offers the space under itsownbillofladingnor-mally of a specific trade lane. WhiletheVSAsand SCAs are the glue that binds thealliancestogether,there are a number of other factors thatfigureintoanalliance. Collectively,thepurchasing power of a carrier alliance is much greater than that of an individualcarrier,whether that be directed at operational expenseslikefuelandport related fees or the purchase or chartering of the vessels them-selves. There is also the inher-ent advantage of commonality in size and equipment which can lower not only the initial purchase price but the main-tenancecostsoverthecom-merciallifetimeoftheassetparticularly critical when the asset is a 20,000 TEU ship. Andsizeisleveragein ways extending beyond opera-tionalmatters.Itisalsotrue whentacklingindustrywide issues like environmental chal-lenges (IMO 2020 for example) or national legislative affairs. Onemajordifferencein the operation of shipping alli-ancesduringthispandemic period is changes in their rota-tions. In the past, April is the month that shipping alliances readjusttheirschedulein coordination with their annual shipper contracts period. In the 2021season this doesnt look to be the case as congestion, highvesselutilizationand fewernewbuildingsentering service have muzzled changes to rotations. Shipping pundits hadanticipatedthesubdued approachbythealliancesas ports jockey for bigger shares of the alliance calls.According to Alphaliner, theTHEAsreshufflingthe East-Westloops:thelaunch ofasnewdirectAsia[US GulfEC6serviceandthe expected US East Coast EC1 serviceincreaseinvessel TEUs from 8,500 TEU-9,500 TEU to the line haul 13,000 (TRIPARTITEcontinued on page 14)'