Maersk Line Reaches Out to China Over 2M Alliance

2M will see the world's two biggest shipping companies allied on key routes

Maersk Line CEO, Soeren Skou, last week paid visits to two Chinese ministry officials in an effort to ensure smooth sailing for the proposed 2M deal, Reuters reports.

2M is the name given to a proposed tie up between Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company, which emerged from the failed, larger P3 alliance, also including CMA CGA. 

Maersk Line said the new pact does not need approval from the China's commerce ministry (MOFCOM) and that the company only needs to file details with China's transport ministry.

However, the company said the meetings it had initiated with Chinese authorities, which blocked the P3 deal, were a natural step in the process.

"We fully understand MOFCOM's decision which is why we have decided to engage in a traditional (vessel-sharing agreement) with MSC," a spokeswoman for the company said.

Soeren Skou met on Friday with the director-general of the commerce ministry's anti-monopoly bureau, Shang Ming, to discuss the ministry's decision, the new alliance, and monopoly concerns.

Analysts expect 2M has a better chance of being viewed as acceptable by Chinese authorities as it will see the alliance control less than 30 percent of shipping capacity available on Asia-Europe shipping routes.

Soren also met China's Vice Minister of Transport, He Jianzhong, on Thursday during which they discussed the Chinese shipping market, a government notice said.

A.P. Moller Maersk's CEO on Wednesday said he expected U.S. approval, theoretically the only formal regulatory approval needed for the deal to go ahead, to be a "formality."