In August the Scorpio Group confirmed orders for three 19,200teu ships with Samsung Heavy Industries that will be chartered bareboat to MSC for up to 15 years. The three-vessel commitment will mean an investment of at least $460 million and shall remain separate from Scorpio Tankers, which has a fleet of 31 tankers on the water, including 15 delivered this year, and 43 more on order, and Scorpio Bulkers, which is awaiting delivery of 74 newbuildings. Hapag Lloyd will no longer sell vessels to breakers that do not comply with strict regulations, limiting its ability to benefit from price changes on the open market. As part of its sustainability policy, the German carrier will only use recycling yards that have the International Organization for Standardisation 14001 certification and follow the guidelines of the International Maritime Organization’s Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. Not all recycling yards are able to conform to these standards, which will limit Hapag-Lloyd’s ability to benefit from the higher prices on offer from breakers in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In early September Hapag-Lloyd welcomed the approval under European Union merger regulations for the planned integration of the container shipping activities of Compañia Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) into Hapag-Lloyd. The transaction will create the fourth largest container shipping company in the world. Maersk Line and MSC sent top-level representatives to Washington for urgent meetings with the Federal Maritime Commission in early September amid signs that some in the US agency have concerns about the proposed 2M vessel-sharing agreement that replaces the previously planned P3 alliance, which included CMA CGM, that China objected to. Initially, the 2M expects to operate approximately 97 ships in their joint east-west services that call at U.S ports, with nominal capacities ranging from 4,000 teu to around 13,000 teu. CMA CGM has since unveiled a new 3-way shipping alliance with two rivals after the P3 failed.

The company has agreed a route-sharing alliance with China Shipping Container Lines Co. Ltd. (CSCL) and United Arab Shipping Co. (UASC) to be known as Ocean Three in a cost saving measure. The move will set up a four-way alliance battle on the Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, transatlantic and transpacific trade lane, with Ocean Three vying with the 2M Alliance, the CKYHE Alliance of Coscon, K Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin and Evergreen and the G6 Alliance of APL, Hyundai MM, MOL, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK Line and OOCL. Both 2M and Ocean Three remain non-operational until approval by regulators in the U.S. and China, among other jurisdictions.

Orient Overseas Container Line, on behalf of the G6 Alliance, informed customers that the decision to divert vessels operating on the Asia-Europe Loop 4 service from Rotterdam to neighbouring Antwerp due to congestion had been extended until the middle of October. As with the G6 Alliance’s previous service adjustments, the rest of the loop’s port rotation will remain unaffected.