Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM plan to come together as the P3 network, they will operate a massive 255 vessels covering the three major trade lanes : Asia – Europe, trans Pacific and trans Atlantic.
Pending approval from regulatory authorities, the launch is planned for the second quarter of 2014. Each line will retain fully independant sales, marketing and customer service functions – a joint vessel operating centre ( JVOC) will be established to manage the P3 network independantly of the carriers. Obviously the main reason for this is to trim costs, and although there is promise of greater service frequencies, there are fears the carriers will control prices arbitrarily by controling supply.
Overall the feeling is that the alliance has the potential to “further disadvantage” local New Zealand exporters when compared with competitors from Europe and North America, we will have to wait and see !!