Maersk Line was forced to pay extra to secure scarce charter tonnage from Gemini Cooperation.

According to Linerlytica, the Danish shipping company is leasing the 8,030 teu Manzanillo Bridge ship, built by Sinokor Merchant Marine in 2024, for two to three months at a rate of $100,000 per day.

The ship has just completed a three-month charter contract with Mediterranean Shipping, and it is worth noting that Maersk paid $10,000 more per day than Mediterranean Shipping.

Taiwanese operator TS Lines has leased its newly built 7,000 teu ship TS Hongkong to Maersk for $99,750 a day for a two-month short trans-Pacific voyage.

Greek tonnage supplier Euroseas disclosed on Monday that it has leased a pair of 4,253 teu container ships, Synergy Antwerp and Synergy Keelung, from Maersk for $35,500 per day for at least three years, starting in May and June. The two vessels were previously leased to Hapag-Lloyd and TS Lines respectively.

Aristides Pittas, CEO and Chairman of Euroseas, said: "Despite the potential for ships to re-navigate the Suez Canal later this year, these charter contracts continue to demonstrate strong demand from liner companies for feeder and mid-sized vessels.

"We believe that due to the tight supply of feeder container ships and medium-sized container ships, charterers are willing to secure capacity in advance at very certain terms and rates."

"This is mainly because their order book is very limited and most of the fleet is over 20 years old," he added.

MB Shipbrokers (formerly Maersk Brokerage) noted that the Super Panamax ships for this year and 2026 are almost sold out. Its latest weekly report said: "Demand remains firm, supply remains extremely scarce except for one or two short-term subcharters, and overall market conditions are very positive."

Maersk's Gemini partner Hapag-Lloyd has also renewed a number of feeder vessels in recent weeks for periods of one to three years, These include Songa Box's 2,592 teu Puerto Limon Express and JR Shipping's 1,440 teu Empire.

Alphaliner said today that the ongoing tightness in the charter market also appears to be having an impact on the Premier League's network plans, as its three member shipping lines all struggle to gain enough capacity to match Mediterranean Shipping, Gemini Shipping and Ocean Alliance.

"Excluding Hapag-Lloyd's ship contribution, the three [Premier] partners will be left with only 2.39 million TEUs, down from 3.27 million TEUs. Premier's members have limited ability to recoup losses in THE short term, as ONE (66 percent), HMM (62 percent) and Yangming Marine (83 percent) have already contributed most of their fleets to THE Alliance.

"ONE will soon take delivery of the first of more than 14,000 teu new vessels, which will help strengthen Premier's fleet," the analyst said in a research note today.