THE Alliance
THE Alliance was a vessel-sharing agreement among Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, Yang Ming and HMM. With Hapag-Lloyd's exit to form Gemini Cooperation, the remaining carriers reorganised as the Premier Alliance from February 2025. The alliance covers the following East-West container trades: Asia-Europe, Transatlantic, Transpacific. Combined deployed capacity across the partnership stands at approximately 4,900,000 TEU as of the most recent published service network.
Vessel-sharing alliances such as THE 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.
THE Alliance members
- Hapag-Lloyd — Hamburg, Germany; SCAC HLCU; 308 vessels.
- Yang Ming — Keelung, Taiwan; SCAC YMLU; 91 vessels.
- HMM — Seoul, South Korea; SCAC HDMU; 75 vessels.
Trade-lane coverage
THE 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.