Archives



Freight News, Sea


Alliances could control four fifths of some trades, warns ESC

[ December 5, 2013   //   ]

The European Shippers’ Council (ESC) said that the two major shipping alliances – the G6, which announced in early December that it will expand its cooperation to the transatlantic and Asia-North America West Coast and trade lanes and the planned P3 cooperation between Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM would have a combined market share of 80% on some routes.

However, ESC conceded that the P3 alliance might also bring efficiency gains and other benefits to container liner shipping.

ESC said that the European Union should ensure that no abuse of dominant position is achieved by one or two parties on trade lanes to or from Europe. It also called on the European Commission to ensure that the transatlantic trade was not dominated by just two companies, should P3 be cleared under EU competition law.

The also ESC believes that some clarification of anticipated freight rates be given and whether there will be changes as a result of the increased cooperation. It plans to monitor the effect of the effects of the two alliances’ effects on the market.

Tags: , , , , , ,