Southampton port welcomed in the first UK arrival of the new Gemini Cooperation this month, as the MV Leonidio arrived ahead of its westbound Atlantic crossing to New Brunswick, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
The new carrier alliance is jointly operated by Maersk and Hapag Lloyd and officially got underway from the 1st of this month. The partnership will predominantly be using Southampton for its Transatlantic services and has decided to use London Gateway for its services to and from Asia and the Middle East.
Gemini confirmed that it would not be using Felixstowe in an announcement at the end of last year. The omission of the port from the Gemini schedules would have undoubtedly been a blow for the East Anglian port, which has been besieged by congestion issues during the past year.
Congestion has been rife in European ports, but Felixstowe has especially suffered due to high demand and capacity restrictions. Processing times have been getting slower and vessel waiting times have become longer, which have been anywhere between 10 and 20 days during recent times.
Felixstowe has been the UK’s largest container port for many years. However, a £1 billion investment to expand London Gateway was announced in October, which will theoretically see it overtake Felixstowe within the next five years.
Hopefully, Felixstowe take advantage of the reduction in services through the port, along with next month’s two-three lull in vessel arrivals that follows 6/7 weeks behind Chinese New Year, to address some of its congestion issues.
