Cargo Business Newswire

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Top Story

Maersk and MSC file vessel-sharing plan with Federal Maritime Commission

Last week Denmark’s Maersk Line and Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Company submitted their 10-year agreement known as 2M with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission.

The FMC will start a 45-day review period before reaching a decision, unless the agency needs more information from the applicants, in which case the review period clock will stop and restart once requested materials are submitted.

The South China Morning Post says it obtained a copy of the 2M agreement from a source close to the FMC.

"The geographic scope shall extend to trades between ports in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, ports on the U.S. Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts and ports in Mexico and the Bahamas and ports in Asia (from) Japan to Malaysia," said the FMC filing, explaining the scope of the 2M deal.

After China's Ministry of Commerce nixed the P3 alliance (Maersk, CMA CGM and MSC) in June, Maersk and MSC proposed the more conventional 2M vessel-sharing deal. 2M does not fall under the category of "concentration of business operators" defined by China's anti-monopoly law, so it doesn’t need approval from Beijing.

So in order to do business in China, the shipping lines only need to file with the Ministry of Transport detailing the partnership plan.

Including Asia-Europe trades, 2M involves a total of 185 vessels with a capacity of 2.1 million TEUs. It has a market share of 35 percent on Asia-Europe, 16 percent on trans-Pacific and 30 percent on trans-Atlantic trades, according to Tan Hua Joo, executive consultant at Alphaliner.

For more of the South China Morning Post story: www.scmp.com

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