By Arthur Chen     Photo：Kelly L

The three major shipping lines in Taiwan respectively stated that they have no intention to follow the practice of the three major European shipping lines to grab direct customers and exclude logistics suppliers.

 In the blog post on January 14, it was mentioned that Maersk, MSC, CMA and other three major European shipping lines are actively expanding to various service providers in the logistics supply chain, wanting to take all the upstream and downstream, and crowd out such as freight forwarders, trucks, warehouses off the living space of logistics providers. These aggressive and rude tactics have aroused the vigilance of many supply chain chambers of commerce and parliaments in Europe. Different from the three major European shipping lines, the shipping lines in Asia take a symbiotic and mutually beneficial approach. Although these Asian shipping companies usually have their own logistics subsidiaries and operate all-inclusive supply chain services, most of their business is still in harmony with various suppliers. Recently, Taiwan's three major shipping companies, Evergreen, Yang Ming and Wan Hai, respectively stated that they will focus on their core business in container transportation, and will not develop towards third-party logistics (3PL) like Mediterranean Shipping, Maersk and CMA CGM. They develop to third-party logistics (3PL) which exclude the survive room of these third-party suppliers. 

Evergreen and Yang Ming held regular meetings with stock analysts and reporters, and their executives were asked in January if they wanted to follow up with European shipping lines in acquiring various logistics service companies. In December 2021, the three largest container operators, MSC, Maersk and CMA CGM, acquired Brazilian logistics company Log-inLogistica, Hong Kong-based LF Logistics and US logistics company Ingram Micro CLS, respectively. MSC also made a $6.4 billion bid for Bolloré Logistics' African ports unit, said to be subject to its entry into the African logistics market and container terminal concessions for 16 container facilities in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo. seduction of power.

Xie Huiquan, general manager of Evergreen Group, said the company has no intention of following Maersk's lead. "We have our own logistics subsidiary (Evergreen Logistics), which will continue to expand globally, so Evergreen has no plans to acquire other logistics companies," he said. On the other hand, Du Shuqin, general manager of Yang Ming line, said that each company's plans are different, and the market will pay attention to Maersk's strategy. He added: "The division of roles between shipping lines and the ground logistics industry is a mutually beneficial relationship. We must carefully examine whether it is necessary to vigorously develop the ground logistics business. Yang Ming already has good international logistics services and will continue to expand its business. Wan Hai line told The Loadstar that they are not looking to acquire the third-party ground logistics company, as preliminary estimates show the company’s revenue hit an high record of $8.23 billion last year due to higher rates due to congestion on the U.S. West Coast.

However, earnings at Wan Hai's core intra-Asia container shipping business fell as more operators added capacity on the Asian trade lines. Wan Hai will bring their focus back to the Asian lines. Containerized ocean freight rates within the Asian region have risen sharply in recent years, although shipping costs on these busy routes have not risen as fast. In the first half of January 2022, spot freight rates on major container shipping routes from China to Japan and South Korea rose above $1,800 per FEU. In 2021, the spot freight rate on these routes were basically remain at around $1,400, and in 2020, the spot freight rate on these routes were only at the level of around $640. In other words, Wan Hai can only focus on the interests of container transportation.

At the same time, the cooperation among ONE, COSCO, HMM and the ground logistics company continued as always, and there were no bad rumors of crowding out cooperative logistics providers. Obviously, the three major European shipping companies have provided them with sufficient fund to expand aggressively due to their huge profits in the past two years, and the container market share exceeds 40%. They have been lured by a huge profit image of the market. the road of no return. Authorizations in the EU, US, China, South Korea, etc. have be alerted andset their sights on preventing the possibility of such a market monopoly.

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