COSCO-China Shipping Merger

The merger created one of the largest ocean carriers and showed how consolidation was reducing the number of container lines that shippers can choose from. Approved by Beijing during a deep shipping downturn, the combined group was formally launched in Shanghai in February 2016 with about 610 billion yuan in assets and container capacity that ranked it about fourth in the world. Other carriers merged or were acquired in the following years. With fewer, larger carriers, shippers have less leverage when negotiating contract rates, and one carrier's network decisions affect a larger share of the capacity on each trade lane.

• Contract RateFreight price locked in for a set term
• Full Container LoadFCLOne shipper's goods in a whole container
• Twenty-Foot Equivalent UnitTEUContainer capacity unit of one 20-foot box

• Maersk Acquires Sea-Land1999 · Maersk buys Sea-Land's international container line
• Maersk Acquires P&O Nedlloyd2005 · Maersk becomes the largest container line by far
• Great Recession Freight Downturn2008–2009 · US freight shipments fall about 25 percent

1. COSCO Shipping (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
2. COSCO Shipping: a guide to the merger of COSCO and China Shipping (Seatrade Maritime) seatrade-maritime.com