[241013.EN.SEA] P3 Awaits Regulatory Approval To Become The World's Largest Alliance

AS THE world's top three lines press ahead with their proposed P3 alliance, regulators in China, Europe and the US will be scrutinising the details of the most ambitious vessel-sharing agreement (VSA) ever seen in the container shipping industry over the next few weeks.

Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM have now released details of joint fleet operations in the Asia-Europe, transpacific and transatlantic trades, involving 252 ships with combined capacity of 2.6 million TEU. These include Maersk's 18,270 TEU Triple-E ships and those of 16,000 TEU that CMA CGM and MSC have in service or on order.

The trio aims to inaugurate P3 operations in the second quarter of next year but will not start recruiting staff for the new fleet network centre or reorganising services until competition authorities have given them the green light, reports Lloyd's List.

In Europe, the three carriers have to self-assess to ensure there is no abuse of their dominant position, as consortia market share thresholds will be breached, but have held informal meetings with antitrust officials in Brussels to explain the purpose of the initiative. They also have to notify the authorities in Germany where the network centre is regarded as a merger.

The three partners are filing their proposed alliance with the Federal Maritime Commission in Washington and need to get approval from the Chinese regulators.

The vessel sharing agreement has been brought to the attention of China's Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Commerce, which are examining the competition implications of the joint network centre.

Until regulatory clearance has been obtained, the three lines will not start moving ships around in preparation for the start of joint fleet operations. That process will take at least a couple of months, said Maersk chief trade and marketing officer Vincent Clerc, who is spearheading the initiative along with MSC's Diego Aponte and CMA CGM's Rodolphe Saade.

With these competition issues still to be settled, recruitment for the joint operations centre in London is unlikely to begin before the first quarter of 2014, Mr Clerc told Containerisation International.

Source : HKSG.