The Ocean Three shipping alliance has started calling at DP World Southampton (DPWS) in the south of England, to be followed within a week by the rival 2M shipping alliance.

The 16,020-TEU CMA-CGM Marco Polo will operate the service as part of the new Ocean Three shipping alliance, reported London's Loadstar.

The Ocean Three partners are CMA CGM, a longstanding customer at Southampton; United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), which has called at Southampton on previous occasions and China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), which already charters slots on Southampton services.

Ocean Three will have two services into Southampton, replacing two existing CMA CGM services, still to be called the FAL 1 and the FAL 3.

Cosco, traditionally a customer of the port of Felixstowe, will be taking slots on the CMA CGM services into Southampton.

2M, uniting Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world's two biggest container shipping lines, will make its first Southampton call on February 17 with the docking of the 9,600-TEU Susan Maersk.

The alliance has added DP World Southampton as a new port of call to give customers more choice and in response to cargo owners that have expressed a preference to use the Southampton container terminal.

The new service will be called "Condor" by MSC and "AE9" by Maersk. It will initially deploy vessels ranging in size fro 9,500 and 12,500 TEU. For Maersk it will be a return to the port after nearly five years.

For MSC it is a continuation of the service that has historically been offered on the French shipping line's FAL 1 and FAL 3 services.

Said DP World Southampton chief Chris Lewis: "Everything is super-sized. But we've got the infrastructure, a new berth and deep-water access, as well as a proven track record for fast and reliable productivity."