When Maersk February next year begins its operational alliance with Hapag-Lloyd, under the name “Gemini Cooperation,” it will also mark a farewell to the large VLCS’s and ULCS’s in the Port of Aarhus.
According to Maersk’s newly published route plan starting February 2025 (see below) for Asia-Europe-Asia (AE2), the Europe-bound AE2 will terminate in in Bremerhaven. According to the route plan, Aarhus, Gothenburg and Gdansk will instead be connected through feeder routes from Wilhelmshaven and the turn-around port Bremerhaven.
Over the last 20 years, I have regularly photographed in Port of Aarhus including Maersk’s activities, which for much of the years have involved a weekly visit of first VLCS’s and later ULCS’s. The gallery below shows some of the results of the numerous photo sessions, including some of the last newbuilds from Odense Staalskibsværft, completed alongside in Aarhus – as well as a few ULCS’s from MSC, a result of the 2M Alliance, which will stop when the collaboration with Hapag-Lloyd begins next year.
UPDATE February 8, 2024: After I posted the blog entry above on Sunday, February 4, based on my personal assumption derived from Maersk’s newly published route plan, my supposition about the exit of the largest classes of container vessels from Aahus has been confirmed by Maersk in a number of Danish medias in the following days. Therefore, I have made some adjustments to the text of the blog post for the sake of its long-term relevance.
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