South Korea’s SM Line and the 2M partners Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) are ending their slot-sharing agreement in the transpacific.
The three carriers will terminate a strategic cooperation on Asia to US west coast services on 8 May.
The 2M partners will subsequently offer alternative services to those currently offered together, MSC said in an advisory.
SM Line and the 2M partner lines established their cooperation in the transpacific in April 2020.
The South Korean carrier then took the place of compatriot carrier HMM, which ended its own partnership with the 2M in order to join rival THE Alliance.
Since then, booming freight markets mean liners are able to fill their vessels without partners so are able to operate independent services, analysts believe.
The decision to terminate the agreement nearly a year early comes hard on the heels of the cancellation of a similar arrangement between the 2M partners and Israeli carrier Zim.
Zim and the 2M announced last month that they would end a similar collaboration for services linking Asia to the Mediterranean and the Pacific Northwest (Asia-Canada) trades.
The surge in freight rates and shortage of capacity has also led non-shipping operators to enter the market with freight forwarders entering the liner business.
Independent services have been established by UK forwarder Uniserve, which last month launched Ellerman City Liners.
Similarly, Italian forwarder RifLine has launched Kalypso Compagnia di Navigazione, a new company for services between China and the Indian subcontinent and Italy.
Ellerman and Kalypso operate their own services using chartered vessels from sub-panamax up to traditional panamax size.
