THE European Commission's vice-president for transport, Siim Kallas, has come out in favour of the P3 mega shipping alliance, which would unite Europe's Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and CMA CGM, ahead of scheduled regulatory examination of the proposal.
Mr Kallas told Denmark's ShippingWatch that the P3 was European-made good ideas, banding together Danish, Swiss and French companies, to counter China's growing industrial strength.
"China is a very serious and very aggressive competitor. In this context, P3 is very interesting because no one else can actually ensure the position of European shipping in globalisation," he said.
His views come ahead of a December 17 global summit in Washington, when competition regulators from the US, Europe and China will discuss container carrier alliances.
The rival G6 Alliance (APL, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, MOL, NYK Line and OOCL) has unveiled plans to expand its container services to the transatlantic and Asia-US west coast trade lanes to meet the P3 threat that combines the three biggest carriers with a 37 per cent global market share.
Said Mr Kallas: "In a global competition context, I think the P3 alliance is a very good idea which will strengthen the European competition. I believe the alliance represents innovation as it aims at rationalising services and there are multiple issues where they can offer a better service to customers.
"We are facing very fierce global competition and of course volumes matter, that's why China is so strong, they are simply a very big client as well for shipping, and for various raw material producers. And of course you also need some very big players in order to compete," Mr Kallas said.
Meanwhile the China Shippers' Association has urged Beijing to apply the country's antitrust laws to block the alliance, arguing that the tie-up of the world's biggest companies will increase costs for shippers.
The US Federal Maritime Commission late last week tabled a series of further questions to the P3 members, giving the regulatory authority a further 45 days to consider its position before making a ruling.
