A.P. Møller-Mærsk A/S and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co. have clinched a 10-year deal to share vessels on some of the world's busiest trade routes, just weeks after Chinese regulators scuttled a wider alliance between the two carriers and France's CMA CGM SA.

The aim of the new pact, which the partners are calling 2M, is to capture at least some of the cost savings that Mærsk had hoped to get out of the three-way logistics and ship-sharing tie-up, known as the P3 alliance.

Unlike the P3 alliance, the 2M pact isn't expected to encounter regulatory opposition because it is narrower in scope—even though it also extends to trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific as well as Asia-Europe routes. China's antitrust authorities nixed the P3 deal last month as many Chinese and smaller shipping companies felt they would be squeezed out of key routes.

Mærsk and MSC stressed that the 2M deal won't involve co-ownership of ships and shared logistics, pricing, marketing or customer services that were part of the P3 plan. The 2M pact is expected to start in early 2015. A Mærsk spokesman said the two partners have to keep regulators informed about the alliance's activities, but no formal clearance is necessary.

Such partnerships are common in the industry. In 2011, six container-shipping lines created the G6 Alliance, one of the largest vessel networks linking the Far East to Europe. And the CKYH Alliance, which was formed in 2002, includes Japan's Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., China's Cosco Container Lines, Taiwan's Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. and South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co.