On the move

摘要

The ocean carrier herd is definitely on the move again. After virtually no merger and acquisition activity during the past two years, everything appears to be happening at once. Driven by global ambition, the AP Moller- Maersk Group has recently acquired Royal P&O Nedlloyd, CMA CGM has taken over Delmas/OT Africa Line (OTAL)/Setramar and Hapag-Lloyd has put in an offer for CP Ships. As the ink is still drying on all of these deals, it is not an easy time to put together a table of the top 20 carriers in order to review changes since October 1, 2004. The merger between Maersk Sealand and P&O Nedlloyd (PONL) into Maersk Line is only programmed to start in February next year, for instance. Moreover, the AP Moller-Maersk Group still has to sell PONEs 30% share of the Southern Africa Europe Container Service (Saecs) in accordance with EC anti-monopoly instructions.