Taiwanese container giant Evergreen has denied it is in discussions to create a new container alliance.
Yesterday, Splash reported that French container analysts Alphaliner claimed CMA CGM is in discussions with the merged Cosco/China Shipping entity to form an alliance that could also include OOCL and Evergreen.
Evergreen, currently part of the Asian alliance, CKYHE with Cosco, K Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin, has a fleet of around 927,000 slots, according to Alphaliner. The company’s founder, Chang Yung-fa, who tended to be wary of container alliances, died earlier this year, aged 88.
An Evergreen spokesperson contacted by Splash dismissed the rumours as false.
Splash has attempted to get comments from all the container carriers involved in this reported new alliance. Hong Kong’s OOCL, currently part of the G6 alliance, has been the only other carrier to respond, telling Splash last week: “While there has been rumor and speculations in the news about the future alliance landscape and on individual carrier activities, we are in no position to comment on them. As announced in a G6 Alliance press release dated December 11, 2015, the current service structure of the G6 Alliance will remain stable and expect to operate as aligned through 2016.”
“If successful, the initiative would radically alter the current liner shipping landscape and leave the eight remaining carriers of the Ocean Three, CKYHE and G6 alliances in the lurch,” Alphaliner commented in its report earlier this week.
