The European Shippers’ Council has revealed plans to start a global review of the container liner shipping market to address growing concerns among manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers about the long term threats of a concentrated container liner shipping industry through alliances, the ESC said in a release.
Representing the logistic interests of manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers, collectively referred to as shippers, the ESC increasingly worries that these companies will have less choice in shipping their products overseas.
The ESC proposes to monitor the three main trading lanes that are important to manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers that ship their goods overseas, as well as the primary performance indicators that matter to these companies, such as spot rates, transit time, ports directly called and blank sailings among others.
The worldwide survey will be carried out in the coming years, ideally by the newly formed Global Shippers’ Alliance , a cooperation between the Asian Shippers’ Association (ASA) and the American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI) and the ESC.
In order to prepare for a more concentrated container liner market, Denis Choumert, Chairman of the ESC, stressed the need for shippers to collaborate on a worldwide scale and to promote cooperation between the main regulatory agencies.
”Although the current imbalance between capacity and demand gives the impression that alliances do not have a negative impact on the market, this might change rapidly when rates and surcharges increase as weaker players will be outcompeted in the race for ever bigger ships,” Choumert said.