Plans by the world’s three largest container shipping lines to form an alliance will come under scrutiny tomorrow at a tripartite summit that will bring together Chinese, European and US regulators.
The extraordinary meeting, organised at the behest of the Federal Maritime Commission, the US watchdog, highlights the concern among rival shipping lines about the impact of the proposed tie-up.
Denmark’s Maersk Line, a unit of AP Møller-Maersk, Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM of France – the number one, two and three in the industry by capacity – have agreed to pool 252 vessels on three routes: Asia-Europe, transpacific and transatlantic.