P3 Global Ramifications

   To download this report you must be an American Shipper Global Schedule Subscriber, a BlueWater Reporting Individual Subscriber or a BlueWater Reporting Corporate Subscriber or you may purchase the report directly by visiting https://www.bluewaterreporting.com/p3ramifications                                                                                                                                                 
   A BlueWater  Reporting exercise undertaken soon after the P3 Network was announced in mid- June found that the P3 partners had 69 individual or joint services running east to west with potential for rationalization, including 18 with transpacific legs, 23 legs in Asia – Europe, and no less than 34 in transatlantic. With their integrated “hub and spoke” networks, every single Maersk, MSC, or CMA CGM service worldwide is likely to pass through one or more major transshipment hub port along the way – and the majority of these hubs are located along the world’s busy east-west corridors.
   At the same time, it is noteworthy that the north-south services of Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg Sud, CSAV, CCNI and Marfret all seemed to be partnering with members of the P3 or else partnering with each other, and using the same hubs as the P3, suggesting that in the longer term, as tonnage is cascaded, the P3 Network may logically extend to become the P8 Network. 
   Despite this, for now the regulators are only concerned with the limited initial big-ship integration suggested by the P3 involving 28 loops. However, such are the lines’ individual sizes that the competitive impact of simply swapping slots on existing services could be still be immense
   Further, there is also enormous scope for the P3 partners to rationalize their feeder and intra-Asia services, as well as step up cooperation on their respective inland rail services, which the outline proposal does not discuss.
   The lines could use their combined feeder port and rail volumes to devastating effect when it comes to negotiating rates.
   BlueWater Reporting provides expertise, research and business intelligence providing visibility and insight into all aspects of global liner shipping and conducts custom research, advisory and consulting services for companies looking to gain a deeper understanding of the issues, trends and challenges impacting their business now and in the future.