Container Shipping Quarterly

Special Report

COMMENTARY

By Jeremy Masters

Carriers ignore core ports— irrespective of lack of terminal equity— at their peril.

Hub-and-spoke systems are a natural feature of container shipping because not all markets are worthy of a mainline call, and not all ports can take big ships. All the large carriers have been operating variations of hub-and-spoke since the dawn of containerization.

The Asia – North Europe trade, with its spread of markets at both ends of the route, is a good place to look at hub-and-spoke, and Gemini is a natural focus with its drive for port call streamlining to support schedule reliability.

The acid test of dedication to hub-andspoke systems is how many mainline ports are served when there is a magnetic pull to serve more local markets directly.

When Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd kicked off their Gemini Cooperation alliance in February 2025, they commenced with the following four loops( using Hapag’ s prefix and focusing on the westbound legs):

• NE1: Ningbo, Shanghai, Tanjung Pelepas, Tanger Med, Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam.

• NE2: Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Rotterdam, Hamburg, London Gateway.

• NE3: Shanghai, Ningbo, Tanjung Pelepas, Algeciras, London Gateway, Rotterdam.

• NE4: Qingdao, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, London Gateway, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Rotterdam. At the Asia end, Gemini made the tough decision to focus direct China calls only on Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo and Yantian and served some sizeable local markets like Dalian, Xingang and Xiamen by long-haul dedicated feeder off Tanjung Pelepas, where all the feedered Southeast Asia business would also meet the mainline vessels. Terminal equity was not a factor in China, but Tanjung Pelepas is a long-established APM Terminals( Maersk) facility.

The Asia design was as close to hub-andspoke as was practically possible given the respective size of markets, and it established Tanjung Pelepas as a very important hub.

In Europe, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd had more equity in terminals. Wilhelmshaven and Bremerhaven were both included despite being just 100 km apart by road and 50 nautical miles by sea. This presumably reflected a compromise because of equity ownership( Hapag-Lloyd with Wilhelmshaven, APM with Bremerhaven), but it did not play to a purist streamlining narrative.

Having at least three ports on every rotation also flagged that this may not be a full-fledged hub-and-spoke at the European end. For their part, the Gemini carriers would say that they had proved their credentials by leaving out the traditionally direct calls at Antwerp and Le Havre to increase schedule reliability.

Fast forward to today, and the full rotations are as follows:

• NE1: Ningbo, Shanghai, Tanjung Pelepas, Tanger Med, Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Salalah, Singapore, Ningbo.

• NE2: Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, London Gateway, Tanger Med, Singapore, Shanghai.

• NE3: Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, London Gateway, Gothenburg, Aarhus, Rotterdam, Southampton, Singapore, Shanghai.

• NE4: Qingdao, Ningbo, Tanjung Pelepas, London Gateway, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Algeciras, Tanjung Pelepas, Qingdao. No changes in the ports covered directly in Asia, and the coverage remains as lean as is practically possible.

Europe has been less stable. The changes moved the average number of mainline North Europe calls per loop up from three at launch to four today, meaning a 33 % increase in calls.

The initial omission of Antwerp was always going to be a test of faith due to the size of the local market, the strength of its connectivity to a hinterland that includes northeast France( with no Le Havre calls), and preference for direct services. The addition of Antwerp to NE2 in March 2026 was commercially sensible.

What it does tell you is that carriers ignore core ports— irrespective of lack of terminal equity— at their peril.

For a consortium making its name on streamlining calls, the addition of ports that have smaller market access and elongate services is clearly more of a question mark. The addition of Gothenburg and Aarhus( first to NE4 in August 2025 and then to NE3 in April 2026) signaled a move away from any pretensions to full-blooded port call minimization.

The fact that APM owns terminals in both Gothenburg and Aarhus— along with the decision to have both Wilhelmshaven and Bremerhaven as Europe calls at the outset— indicates that the terminal equity tail has partly been wagging the ship system dog. Good for their terminals’ profit and loss sheet; not necessarily so good for the liner result.

Hub-and-spoke is alive and well, but far from all-powerful.

email: jeremy @ shippingmastershk. com

18 Journal of Commerce | October 5, 2026 www. joc. com