Panama - The major deepsea alliances could begin to extend the scope of their joint service network to secondary north-south trades, such as those serving Latin America, as they look to squeeze more efficiency from their cooperation agreements.
Michael Kristiansen, owner of consultancy CK Americas, told delegates at this week’s TOC America Container Supply Chain event in Panama: “I think the global alliances are coming here – whether it is little by little or very fast, I think it is inevitable.”
Howard Finkel, executive vice president of Cosco Container Lines, confirmed that the Ocean Alliance – in which its partners Evergreen, CMA CGM and recently acquired OOCL – had agreed to consider “extending the geographic scope of the Ocean Alliance beyond the east-west trade, and especially in the north-south trades as that is increasingly becoming a focus of Cosco’s”.
