Premier Alliance

Currently active · founded 2025 · 2 member carriers · 3,700,000 TEU combined capacity

Premier Alliance is the successor to THE Alliance, launched in February 2025 by ONE, Yang Ming and HMM. It maintains joint services across Asia-Europe and Transpacific trades, with cooperation agreements extending through 2030. The alliance covers the following East-West container trades: Asia-Europe, Transatlantic, Transpacific. Combined deployed capacity across the partnership stands at approximately 3,700,000 TEU as of the most recent published service network.

Vessel-sharing alliances such as Premier Alliance let member carriers pool capacity on long-haul trade lanes, run more frequent loops without each operator having to deploy a full string of mega-vessels, and offer customers wider port coverage and tighter schedules than any single carrier could deliver alone. Alliance partnerships do not extend to commercial sales — each member sells its own slots and contracts with shippers under its own house bill — but they do govern which physical ship carries each container on the water.

Premier Alliance members

• Yang Ming — Keelung, Taiwan; SCAC YMLU; 91 vessels.
• HMM — Seoul, South Korea; SCAC HDMU; 75 vessels.

Trade-lane coverage

Premier Alliance operates jointly on the following deep-sea container trades. Each lane is served by a rotation of vessels contributed by member carriers, with one carrier acting as the lead operator on each loop.

• Asia-Europe — joint vessel rotation; weekly or fortnightly fixed-day sailings depending on the loop.
• Transatlantic — joint vessel rotation; weekly or fortnightly fixed-day sailings depending on the loop.
• Transpacific — joint vessel rotation; weekly or fortnightly fixed-day sailings depending on the loop.