Hapag-Lloyd is withdrawing from its three-carrier vessel-sharing agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and Ocean Network Express (ONE) on the Asia–South America east coast trade. MSC and ONE will restructure the partnership to operate the route jointly, leaving freight forwarders and shippers on this lane to work with a revised two-carrier network going forward.
MSC confirmed that the current agreement covering the Ipanema service will end in its present form. Going forward, the Swiss carrier and Singapore-based ONE will operate the weekly service jointly, without Hapag-Lloyd's participation. Neither carrier has publicly detailed the commercial reasoning behind Hapag-Lloyd's exit.
The first sailing under the revised agreement is scheduled to depart Shanghai on April 3, 2027. Forwarders booking capacity on this corridor should plan around this transition date, as space allocations and vessel-sharing arrangements will shift from the three-carrier model to the MSC-ONE structure.
MSC will contribute additional ships to replace the capacity previously associated with Hapag-Lloyd's involvement. The company has not disclosed how many vessels it intends to add or the total capacity involved, so forwarders managing project cargo or out-of-gauge (OOG) shipments on this route should monitor capacity updates closely as the transition date approaches.
ONE, for its part, confirmed that it will continue operating the trade under its East Coast South America Express 1 (SX1) brand, maintaining weekly sailings between major Asian export centers and South America's principal container gateways.
The revised service will connect Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Hong Kong, and Singapore with Brazilian ports including Santos, Paranaguá, Navegantes, and Rio Grande, as well as Montevideo and Buenos Aires. ONE has noted that the final rotation remains subject to further operational review, so forwarders relying on specific port pairs should confirm routing details closer to the April 2027 launch.
This restructuring ends a longstanding three-way cooperation on the route. MSC, ONE, and Hapag-Lloyd originally expanded their Asia–South America east coast partnership in late 2018, when ONE added weekly services to broaden coverage between the two regions. With the latest change, MSC and ONE will continue their cooperation while Hapag-Lloyd withdraws from the vessel-sharing arrangement entirely.
For boutique and independent freight forwarders handling project cargo or industrial moves between Asia and South America's east coast, this shift is worth tracking closely: fewer vessel-sharing partners on a trade lane can affect space availability, equipment positioning, and pricing dynamics in the lead-up to the April 2027 transition.
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Mr Adis Ajdin