Maersk top executives rush to meeting

Top executives from Maersk Line and MSC, which have entered into the vessel-sharing agreement called 2M, was reported to be heading to the United States for an urgent meeting with the American maritime administrations, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). FMC's approval of 2M is dragging out. Usually there is a processing time of 45 days, but in the case of 2M, the American authorities apparently asses that further information is needed. That means that the approval can be delayed for several weeks, epn.dk writes, quoting Ritzau Finance. The two companies hope that it will help if they take part in a meeting with the American authorities to find out what questions they might have.  Sources close to the FMC have said that there are very good chances that FMC approves 2M, because concerning the P3 alliance, there was only one member of the commission who voted against the approval. The two companies vessel sharing agreement includes 185 vessels on 21 routes with a total capacity of 2.1 million TEUs. Sources estimate that it is the size of the vessel-sharing agreement that is causing the American authorities to add additional conditions. Source: epn.dk The shipping alliance between the two shipping giants Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co., dubbed the 2M, complies with Chinese rules and is operationally ready to launch, according to Maersk Line CEO Søren Skou, cited by the Shipping Watch. “We’ve submitted our application and have thus fulfilled the requirements, but the Chinese regulators can of course at any given moment launch a study of the agreement,” Skou said. “But we do believe that our VSA is fully comparable to other collaborations of similar scope.” However, the 2M alliance might be facing an extended review period in the United States of America, as the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission examines details of the alliance that were submitted last week. The Commission will likely ask for additional information during the review which relate to the time-frame of the tie-up and the vessels’ size. The 45-day process might be stopped while Commissioner William Doyle submits the questions to the shipping companies about their proposed agreement. Without the announced interruption, 2M could have been approved in the US on October 11, which according to industry experts is looking more and more unrealistic. The regulations state that once the 45-day process is stopped, it can not be continued, but rather a new 45-day review period starts. The 2M alliance will also be featured on the agenda of the upcoming annual US-China maritime-agreement consultation in Shanghai in November, where the US representatives hope to learn of China’s outlook on the proposed alliance, as well as to find out more about the review process. Last week AP Moller-Maersk chief executive Nils Andersen stated that the 2M partners ”did not need antitrust clearance in China,” on the basis that the new agreement is nothing like the rejected P3 alliance. U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner Richard Lidinsky reportedly said in an interview to the Journal of Commerce that ”Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. appear to have the same confidence that Chinese regulators will approve their “2M” vessel-sharing agreement as they did before China’s rejection of the P3 Network.” “It’s deja vu all over again,” said Lidinsky. “It’s like they didn’t learn anything in dealing with China; you have to deal with the government with respect.”