Robert Peek, chief commercial officer of the Jacksonville Port Authority, reviews the recent reshuffling of container line alliances, and discusses how the new alignments will impact service quality, trade routes and port activity on the U.S. East Coast.

The early months of 2025 saw a reshuffling of ocean carrier space-sharing alliances, with two previous ones — the 2M and THE Alliance — dissolving, to be replaced by two new groups of carriers, the Gemini Cooperation and Premier Alliance. The changes affect services by most of the top 10 carriers in the world, Peek notes.

At the outset, he says, shippers were concerned about how the new alliances would play out in terms of service reliability, “but so far, the carriers have really delivered.”

Peek believes the container trades have been competitive for many years, although if volumes dip due to any number of trends or disruptions, “you’re going to see that competition in the near term consistently ratchet up.”

Ports in general, and those along the U.S. East Coast specifically, have had to adjust to recent events. “Generally speaking,” Peek says, the East Coast has done very well,” with ports in the region deepening ship channels, expanding terminals, purchasing new cranes and building out “last-mile” road and rail networks.

“Billions of dollars in infrastructure have gone into U.S. East Coast ports, to provide capability so that carriers can bring in much larger vessels, and accommodate those volumes that shippers want to move to the East Coast,” Peek says. Further fueling business in the region is the recent conclusion of a multi-year labor agreement with dockworkers.

Uncertainties about global trade continue to concern shippers and carriers in all port regions, opening up new opportunities. “Current trade policy has created an environment where decision-makers in global supply chains can think creatively in ways they haven’t before,” Peek says.