Residents in the Saint John area will soon see more shipping container traffic moving through the city’s port.
DP World, which operates the container terminal, recently announced a partnership with the Gemini Cooperation.
It is a brand new alliance between shipping companies Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk that will officially launch in February.
Craig Bell Estabrooks, president and CEO of Port Saint John, said this will mean larger ships for the port.
“You’re not going to see a massive increase in size of ship, but you’re definitely going to see larger ones coming through the cooperation,” Bell Estabrooks told our newsroom.
“With larger ships, we are trending toward, we believe, well in excess of 200,000 TEUs, which we’ve never hit in Saint John.”
How the alliance came to be
Shipping alliances are nothing new, with Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk both being part of different alliances before now.
Hapag-Lloyd was a member of THE Alliance, which also included Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming. Maersk, meanwhile, was part of the 2M alliance with MSC, but the two companies announced their partnership would end in January 2025.
“MSC is choosing largely to be operating on their own outside of alliance services, so that had a cascading effect for the entire container shipping world,” said Bell Estabrooks.
Both Hapag-Lloyd and MSC service the Port of Saint John, along with French shipping company CMA CGM.
Bell-Estabrooks said they are hopeful the Gemini Cooperation will lead to even more growth opportunities in the years to come.
Partnership looks for 90% on-time vessel arrivals
DP World said in a news release said the new collaboration will strengthen trade connections between Asia, Europe, and North America.
“This partnership with Gemini Cooperation reaffirms our vision of enabling smarter trade and bolstering the resilience of global supply chains,” Doug Smith, CEO of DP World in Canada, said in a news release.
Saint John will handle key shipping services to and from Northern Europe, while Vancouver and Prince Rupert in British Columbia will manage services connecting Asia.
One of the commitments of the new partnership is 90 per cent on-time vessel arrivals — something Bell Estabrooks at Port Saint John describes as unprecedented.
“What they’re proposing is very bold, and I love it. I love bold initiatives,” he said. In the logistics world, it’s all about time and delivery…. and the logistics component of moving goods really has to be focused on time.”
The news comes as DP World recently welcomed container cranes five and six to Port Saint John, which are meant to handle larger vessels.
While Bell Estabrooks did not have a firm timeline for when they will be up and running, he said it will be “in weeks, not months.”
