By Maria Kalamatas | July 31, 2025
Marseille, July 31 — On a humid morning at the company’s operations center, screens glow with vessel positions stretching from Shanghai to Rotterdam. The Gemini service, CMA CGM’s flagship East‑West network, has done something rare this season: it’s running on time. Almost entirely.
Figures shared with industry partners this week show the service achieved 93 percent schedule reliability in July, despite storms in the Pacific, labor disputes at U.S. gateways, and yard congestion in northern Europe. For a trade lane that has been unpredictable for much of the year, the number raised eyebrows.
“This didn’t happen by chance,” said Antoine Leroy, who manages long‑haul planning for the French carrier. “We’ve pulled ships off secondary routes, shifted crews, and even chartered additional tonnage. Every adjustment was made to keep these schedules intact, because our customers can’t afford another chaotic season.”
Why this matters for shippers
Reliability has become a currency of its own. Automotive suppliers, retailers, and electronics brands are now paying more attention to punctuality than to headline freight rates, knowing that a late arrival can wipe out savings made elsewhere.
Some freight forwarders say they’ve shifted a significant share of their Asia–Europe bookings to the Gemini service, even when it costs more, simply because it delivers predictability others can’t match. One European importer described it as “the first time all year we can plan inventory with confidence.”
What kept the network steady
CMA CGM’s approach combined extra vessels on high‑pressure loops, faster turnarounds at its partner terminals, and the use of inland rail and barge options to bypass congested ports. By spreading risk and staying flexible, the company avoided cascading delays that crippled rival carriers.
Leroy was blunt about the broader challenge. “Weather, strikes, congestion — they’re not going away. What we can do is build slack into the system so our customers aren’t paying the price every time something goes wrong.”
For now, that strategy has worked, putting pressure on competitors to rethink how they run their East‑West trades before the next seasonal rush hits.
