DP World Southampton has welcomed the arrival of MV Leonidio, the first ship to dock to the port under the Gemini Cooperation agreement, set up by Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk.
The MV Leonidio docked at the Southampton logistics hub on February 3 as part of its first rotation on the Gemini Transatlantic AL1/AT3 service.
The ship will call at the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Wilhelmshaven in Northern Europe before crossing the Atlantic to dock at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Saint John in the US and Canada.
The Gemini Cooperation was first announced in January 2024 by shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to strengthen the reliability of their East-West shipping networks, with the aim of reducing the number of port calls in the mainliner services while delivering a flexible and interconnected ocean network with industry-leading reliability.
Around 340 vessels will be phased in and be a part of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s shared ocean network.
As part of their partnership with DP World, all of Gemini’s Middle East-Europe and Asia-Europe services will now be handled at London Gateway, alongside their Trans-Atlantic services at Southampton.
The first Gemini ship on the Asia-Europe service will call at London Gateway in the coming weeks.