Mediterranean Shipping Company and Maersk Shipping Company ranked first and second respectively among the top 10 import shipping companies along the Gulf Coast in 2022 by JOC published by Business Daily. The Mediterranean Group (MSC) increased its imports in the region, with imports to the region up 17.7 percent year-on-year, while Maersk increased 10.4 percent year-on-year.
Marine companies have extended container services to the U.S. Gulf Coast as major distribution centers in Texas continue to grow, successfully catching the tailwinds of shippers moving their goods from West Coast ports. On the other hand, the carrier's share of goods in the fast-growing market that cuts services in the region has declined.
Although the two airlines are 2M alliance partners, it is their independent services that add additional capacity that enables them to handle a total of 40% of the cargo entering the Gulf Coast.
In June 2022, MSC added a Panama-sized Zephyr service from Asia to Port Houston. The company also added feeder services between the Caribbean and Houston.
Maersk added an independent trans-Pacific TP28 service in the US Gulf region in early 2022. However, this service was subsequently canceled and replaced by a separate TP20 service that called the mobile port.
Even though they announced the end of their 2M alliance, as a former partnership, MSC and Maskey are doubling their development along the Mexican coast and announced in January 2023 that they will add a ship to the transatlantic Nordic TA1 service to Houston and a ship to the Mediterranean to US Gulf TA6 service.
Similarly, thanks to the new EC6 service from Asia to the Gulf of Mexico launched in 2021, THE alliance's airlines will continue to increase traffic in the Gulf region. Hapag-Lot's imports in the region increased by 13.5% in 2022, while Ocean's Network Express volume increased by 56.4%.
CMA CGM's export volume fell 7% last year as the main channel for Gulf Coast resins to enter South America. CMA CGM changed its North-South service from once a week to once every two weeks. Imports fell by 3.2022% in 9 years, making it the only shipping company in the top 10 to decline.
However, the shipping company is planning to return to the Gulf Coast market by restoring its north-south service to its weekly schedule and another new service between the U.S. Gulf Coast and South America.
Forwardernet.com