Maersk and MSC have reacted to China's objections to the proposed P3 alliance by coming up with a new vessel sharing arrangement called 2M that they hope will be agreed by all regulatory authorities before the beginning of next year. Out has gone CMA CGM, in order to bring the agreement's market share down to more acceptable levels, and in has come a much simpler joint coordination committee to monitor the carriers' network on a daily basis.
A Nicaraguan committee approved a proposed route on Monday for a $40bn shipping channel across the Central American country that would compete with the Panama Canal.
Drewry's 2Q14 Container Forecaster highlights that there is a widening gap between the positive financials of the few carriers really focused on cutting costs and the rest of the top 20 lines, as they battle with the pressure of falling freight rates.
China's regulators have blocked the P3 mega-alliance between Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM on the grounds that it infringes the country's competition laws between Asia and Europe, particularly with respect to the lines' combined market share of 46.7 percent. The law enforcers appear to believe that the cost reductions gained by the P3 carriers would either have been offset by this unacceptably high risk of market concentration, or would not have been passed back to shippers satisfactorily. Where to now?
High cube 40-foot containers are stealing a march on traditional 40-foot equipment and by the end of 2013 represented just short of 50 percent of the maritime container fleet, according to Drewry's recently published Container Census report.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that they have not approved the P3 Network, a long-term operational vessel sharing agreement proposed by MSC, CMA CGM and Maersk Line. The MOFCOM's decision follows a review under China's merger control rules.
Actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security and two of its component agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as other federal agencies, to address cybersecurity in the maritime port environment have been limited, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
When DWT tanker Shoko Maru caught on fire recently it was described as one of the worst accidents in energy shipping in the past decade. And a recent study shows that product tankers are considered the most accident-prone shipping types, followed by LPG tankers.
Global shipping lines are increasingly shying away from handling cargoes to Iran as restrictions on banking and insurance continue unabated, despite an interim agreement between Tehran and the West that called for limited sanctions relief.
The U.S. needs a better strategy to coordinate and prioritize its policies related to the Arctic region, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that was released by Reps. Rick Larsen, Tim Bishop, John Garamendi and Senator Lisa Murkowski.
