Global ocean freight carriers have been aligned within three ‘alliance’ networks for the past 6/7 years, but that is about to change after the 2M partners recently announced they were splitting.

The world’s two largest shipping lines, MSC and Maersk, have collaborated in vessel sharing under the 2M Alliance banner since 2015, but they will now be going their own separate ways.

With both companies planning to go forward as standalone carriers, we should be moving to four global networks, which became evident when the Maersk CEO stated “Today there are three major networks, in the future there will be four.”

While the official announcement tells of an upcoming split in 2025, it is widely believed that we could see some changes on routes from next year, or possibly even some time this year.

What that means for us as forwarders, or you as importers and exporters, remains to be seen.