Maersk Line has welcomed the combination of the fleets owned by the three big Japanese owners, announced earlier today.
The Danish rival sees the fresh development as a positive sign for the industry, while it is not expecting any short-term impact on its business as such.
NYK, MOL and K Line revealed plans to integrate their liner fleets in an effort to reduce costs by about JPY 110bn ($1bn) per year.
Maersk told TradeWinds: “We welcome consolidation. Our industry is fragmented and consolidation can help transform our business for the benefit of our customers.
“Consolidation can unblock fixed and variable cost efficiencies not possible in a vessel sharing agreement (VSA) and it is a step towards digitalization and better online customer experience as it enables the larger carriers to drive this industry transformation together.”
The new Japanese alliance is expected to begin operations with the start of the Japanese financial year on 1 April 2018.
VesselsValue estimates that the combined fleet will be the third in terms of owned tonnage, only behind Maersk and Cosco.
Maersk added that it does not expect any business impact as it only has a limited number of agreements with the three carriers.
The most important of them is a VSA with MOL on the Asia- East Coast South America trade, which will remain unchanged.
“We will be looking into any potential changes to these agreements as the joint venture comes closer to establishment during the first half of 2017.”
