Maersk-MSC tie-up approval may run to late 2014
US maritime regulator likely to set conditions for antitrust approval of vessel-sharing pact
The proposed alliance between Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's two largest container shipping lines, is likely to obtain the only antitrust clearance it needs from the US by late November but with additional conditions attached.
Marketed as 2M, Copenhagen-based Maersk Line and Geneva-based MSC plan a vessel-sharing agreement for seaborne trade that straddles Europe, the US and Asia. The US Federal Maritime Commission is reviewing the application but the agency will likely demand additional information, extending the review process.
"The chances for 2M to be approved are very good, since the commission voted four-to-one in favour of the more concentrated [P3] merger last time," a source close to the commission said.
[The alliances] are … in spirit contradicting the principle of fair competition
"However, similar to the approval of P3, there will in all likelihood be strings attached to 2M. There will be requests for more information as well as answers to questions required, with the earliest approval date late November," the source said.
In March, four of the body's five commissioners voted in favour of P3 - a merger bid by Maersk, MSC and France's CMA CGM - on the condition that a monitoring programme aimed at reining in the three carriers' bargaining power against US exporters and terminal operators be put in place.
P3 was abandoned after China's Ministry of Commerce barred its formation under the country's anti-monopoly law.
Maersk Line and MSC then came back with the 2M alliance, which involves a total of 185 vessels with a capacity of 2.1 million teu (twenty-foot equivalent units) on 21 trade routes.
The reasons for the close scrutiny and additional conditions, according to the Washington-based source, were the timeframe for the consortium's existence and the size of the vessels it plans to operate.