China rejects P3 and put a break to the largest Shipping Alliance ever conceived China has rejected a shipping alliance initiative aimed at saving the industry money, despite approval from the US and the EU. The P3 Network was intended to operate in a similar way to code-sharing deals between airlines. The idea was to allow the worlds top three container-shipping operators by volume to cut costs by sharing ships and port facilities. A successful alliance would have seen about 250 ships participating in P3. The idea, announced last year, came from a proposed collaboration among three shipping groups: Maersk from Denmark, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) from Switzerland and CMA CGM from France. The network was supposed to begin operating in the second quarter of this year, subject to approvals from various authorities including China, US and the EU. The US Federal Maritime Commission approved the alliance in March, while EU competition authorities said earlier this month they would not raise any anti-trust issues in connection with the deal. However, Chinas Ministry of Commerce has now rejected the tie-up. Chinas state-owned news agency Xinhua said the commerce ministry rejected the alliance due to monopoly concerns. According to various publications, the P3 Network would have positioned the three partners to control up to 40% of all cargo capacity along three trade routes: Asia to Europe, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 02:54:48 +0000
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