China on Tuesday surprisingly blocked a shipping alliance formed by the world’s three biggest shipping lines, ignoring US and EU approval, Bloomberg reported. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that the proposed P3 vessel-pooling accord, which included A.P. Moeller-Maersk (Maersk A.CPH), Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM, would “restrict competition” on the busiest Asia-Europe container routes. “The decision does come as a surprise,” Maersk Chief Executive Officer Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in an interview after the announcement that the P3 plan would now be scrapped. “I did not foresee problems in China. We only received what I would call positive feedback.”
Categories