Marseilles-headquartered CMA CGM said the P3 Network, the alliance it has formed with box shipping industry leaders Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), is likely to start operations in the autumn of 2014.
Earlier, the three had announced that the P3 alliance would likely be launched by mid-2014.
The delay is due to European and Asian fair-trade regulators still not giving their approval to the cooperation, even as their U.S. counterpart already gave its clearance in March.
“P3 is subject to the receipt of relevant regulatory clearances. On 24 March 2014, the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) decided to allow the P3 Network agreement to become effective in the United States,” said an official release from CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container shipping company. “The P3 partners continue their close cooperation with competition and maritime authorities in Europe and Asia to address questions and to explain the nature of P3.”
On June 18, 2013, the three ocean carriers announced their intention to establish a long-term operational vessel sharing agreement (VSA) on the east-west trades.
Once approved by all relevant regulators, the VSA will give the P3 members permission to share vessels and engage in cooperative operating activities on the world’s major ocean trade lanes.
With 255 vessels totaling 2.5 million 20-foot-equivalent units altogether, the P3 is expected to dominate the east-west trade—42 percent of the Asia-Europe trade, 50 percent of the Asia-Mediterranean trade, and 24 percent of the trans-Pacific trade.
Photo: bathyporeia
