Maersk turns to China on alliance plan

[SHANGHAI] Maersk Line's chief executive has paid visits to Chinese authorities about its planned vessel sharing alliance with a Swiss company - including to the Ministry of Commerce which previously blocked a bigger ship-pooling scheme on competition concerns.

Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipping firm and part of Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk, is hoping that its sharing agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) will go smoothly.

The new pact is seen by analysts as having a better chance of gaining China's blessing as it will give the shippers under 30 per cent of capacity on Asia-Europe shipping routes - much less than an earlier agreement that also included France's CMA CGM.