There are fresh hopes that the P3 Alliance shipping lines, Maersk, CMA CGM and MSC, will be able to start their huge vessel-sharing agreement in the second quarter, according to Shipping Gazette.
This comes as the world's three largest ocean liners submitted new information to the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to receive regulatory approval before the end of March.
As for the parallel expansion of the G6 alliance (NYK, Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL, APL, Hyundai and MOL) which proposes a transpacific west coast and transatlantic mega alliance, it is believed that they have yet to reply to the FMC's request for more information.
The agency has 45 days to analyse the P3 response to questions posed to the P3 carriers in early December, and while the trio prepared their responses the clock was stopped.
The FMC cannot halt the process again unless the commissioners obtain a court injunction, a rare step, notes Lloyd's List.
But the Chinese authorities have indicated that it may take till May to wrap up their own investigation to determine whether P3 complies with competition rules. In Europe, self-assessment is required to ensure there is no abuse of antitrust law.
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