The world’s top three container lines appear to have little visibility into whether Chinese regulators will join their U.S. and European counterparts in allowing the carriers’ P3 alliance to take effect.
Sources within the carriers of the P3 Network, which comprises Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM, said this week that they have no clear indication when a decision would come down. One said the best guess at this point was that a decision would come in June, which would be at the end of the second quarter, which was when the carriers originally said they wished to launch the alliance. But approval is not a certainty, with one source putting the odds for approval no higher than 50-50.