Hyundai Merchant Marine Ltd. and APL Ltd. have signed a vessel-sharing agreement with Maersk to offer service aboard a Maersk line that makes weekly calls at the Mobile Container Terminal.
Brian Clark, terminal director, said the new partnership has meant increased weekly volume of up to 15 percent.
Vessel sharing agreements — in which a shipping line essentially buys space from a competitor and resells it — have become more prevalent worldwide as container vessel supply continues to dwarf demand, said Peter Leach, senior editor of the Journal of Commerce in New York.
"In the last five years, up through last year, everybody was ordering ships like there was no tomorrow," Leach said. They are bigger ships than ever before, and slack demand has driven rates down, he said, with a record number of ships being idled. He said the grim scenario will persist for at least another four years.
The terminal, which started regular operations in October 2008, is a partnership between the Alabama State Port Authority and Mobile Container Terminal LLC, a consortium consisting of AP Moller-Maersk subsidiary APM Terminals of North America Inc., which has an 80 percent stake, and Terminal Link, a division of CMA CGM, which has a 20 percent stake.
Half the investment, $150 million, is the authority's, and half is Mobile Container Terminal's.
The terminal can move about 300,000 units a year. Its ultimate capacity is planned at about 800,000 units.
Clark said Mobile Container Terminal is now on track to handle slightly less than half its Phase One capacity in its first year.
The vessel-sharing agreement won't bring new ships to the terminal, but will help Mobile because it brings more containers through, Clark said. That, in turn, keeps more employees working. He said staff has remained steady at about 50 people, mostly union laborers. The number doubles when containers are being handled during vessel operations, he said.
The vessel-sharing agreement involves Maresk's Transatlantic (TA2) line, which serves northern Europe, UK/Ireland, Scandinavian and Baltic destinations. Including TA2, four lines call on the terminal, also offering service to Mexico, central and South America, and Asia.