Shipping lines adjust to changing trade routes

Smoother sailing: A ship moored off the coast of Singapore. Shipping alliances enable liners to pool their vessels and share port facilities to reduce costs.— Reuters

SINGAPORE: Local ports could benefit as the world’s largest shipping lines restructure alliances in the light of major trade routes being redrawn around the Horn of Africa to avoid violence in the Red Sea.

Denmark’s Maersk and Swiss-run MSC, two of the world’s largest container shipping lines, will dissolve their existing alliance from February 2025 to reduce costs and improve service coverage.