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A
group of powerful Asian lines is
exploring plans to create a huge
new alliance that has caused some
anxiety among several leading
lines in the world.
China’s
Cosco, Japan’s K Line,
Taiwan’s Yangming and South
Korea’s Hanjin Shipping,
together with Hanjin subsidiary
Senator Lines of Germany, agreed
during a meeting in Shanghai last
week to seek ways of working
together.
In
a joint statement, the five said
co-operation between shipping
lines “was irreversible”.
The
only way to provide the best
services to customers “is to
strengthen the co-operation among
the lines by means of optimisation
of each carriers’ assets,
rationalisation of their services
on a global basis, and therefore
to create the most competitive and
highest quality services...
including but not limited to
competitive transit times,
convenient frequency and
comprehensive port coverage”.
Cosco,
K Line and Yangming are members of
a well-established consortium that
operates in the east-west trades
while Hanjin and Senator are the
two main members of the United
Alliance (with United Arab
Shipping Co a junior partner
through ship and slot sharing
agreements on those services that
cover the Middle East).
K
Line and Yangming were already
co-operating on the Pacific and in
the Europe/Asia trades when Cosco
decided to join in the unnamed
alliance in 1996.
Industry
sources said if the ships already
deployed within the two separate
alliances are simply added
together, the combined fleet would
come to about 182 vessels with
capacity of some 650,000 TEUs or
nearly 13 per cent of the world
total, according to estimates from
Drewry Shipping Consultants.
According
to Containerisation International,
Maersk Sealand, by far the largest
container shipping company, has a
fleet of 263 ships of 648,000 TEUs.
The
Grand Alliance of P&O
Nedlloyd, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK Line,
Orient Overseas Container Line and
Malaysia International Shipping
Corp has a combined fleet of about
125 ships of almost 500,000 TEUs
capacity or 10 per cent of the
global total, with the New World
Alliance slightly smaller with
around 100 ships accounting for
400,000 TEUs.
But
whatever the precise figures, the
new alliance being pieced together
will have considerable clout.
Furthermore,
whereas Maersk Sealand’s fleet
is spread around the world, the
alliances, including the new
entity, are concentrated on the
main east-west trades.
This
could mean that the Asian
consortium, with 14 service
strings between the lines at the
moment, would control over 27 per
cent of the transpacific trade,
against the Grand Alliance’s 15
per cent, the New World
Alliance’s 18 per cent and
Maersk Sealand’s 12 per cent.
In
the Europe/Asia trades, the market
share could be as high as 2.3
million TEUs annualised capacity
or nearly a quarter of the total,
Drewry estimates, matching that of
the Grand Alliance and ahead of
Maersk Sealand’s 16 per cent.
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