Splash’s Opinion writers led the site this week, providing readers with unique insights into container shipping’s greatest 12 months of consolidation in its 60-year history.
In the wake of Maersk moving for Hamburg Sud, attention has naturally turned to the remaining mid-sized global carriers – namely ZIM, HMM, Yang Ming and OOCL.
Charles De Trenck, a veteran OOCL watcher, mused on who might take over the Hong Kong line – with Evergreen, Cosco and CMA CGM in the mix – in an article that posed the question: What if China-backed or related liners got too big? Or as Charles put it: “What would happen if China had a much fatter finger on the global trade system?”
Taking a step back to look at the bigger container shipping picture, lead Opinion writer Andrew Craig-Bennett’s brilliantly provocative column entitled ‘The liner revolution eats its children’ proved a big hit on the site and via social media. It is this week’s essential read on Splash, I’d say.
Still, neither Charles nor Andrew were the top of the hits parade on Splash this week. That honour belonged to our news coverage on Yang Ming merger talk. I would not be surprised if we have one more containerline merger before the end of the year.
Is the “Liner merger fever” contagious?
Shall we prepare for similar disruption in other segments of Shipping, even though not on the same scale … yet.
Is the ¨Liner Merger Fever¨over? No! First we are going to see Yang Ming Line merger with Wan Hai Lines to form the 2nd Taiwanese million TEU carrier then Hyundai (HYMM) will merger with Korea Lines who will then join THE Alliance after the 2M rejection. OOCL will become another million TEU carrier by itself with the help of a soft loan from the Beijing Government for vessels built there. As the the old Chinese proverb goes; ¨May you live in interesting times!