Containermakers worldwide Maersk and China International Marine Containers abandon merger

After a comprehensive examination by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, China International Marine Containers Group Co. Ltd. (CIMC) announced today that it has abandoned its planned purchase of Maersk Container Industry A/S and Maersk Container Industry Qingdao Ltd. (collectively, MCI).

The planned merger would have brought together two of the top four manufacturers of insulated shipping containers and refrigerated shipping containers in the world.

Additionally, it would have given Chinese state-owned or state-controlled organisations control over over 90% of the world’s manufacturing of insulated container boxes and refrigerated shipping containers.

For many of our daily necessities, American consumers rely on the international cold supply chain, according to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

This important area of our economy was in danger of being damaged by CIMC’s purchase of MCI, which might have resulted in higher costs, inferior quality, and less resilience in global supply chains.

It would have removed MCI as a creative, independent rival and solidified CIMC’s dominating position in an already concentrated market.

The agreement would have also significantly raised the possibility of coordination amongst the market’s surviving providers, the majority of whom would have been allied via shared ownership and associated alliances.

The German Bundeskartellamt and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department collaborated throughout the course of their separate investigations.