A visit to the vast container terminals that handle most of China’s booming manufacturing exports provides a simple primer in how container shipping organises itself. Depending on who its customers are, a terminal often contains clusters of boxes bearing the logos of the several members of one of the main container alliances – the Grand Alliance, New World Alliance and CYKH. There are also usually more uniform piles of boxes belonging to one of the four lines big enough to feel no need of partners – Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Company, CMA CGM and Evergreen.
The independent lines’ neat piles will start becoming more mixed-up at some terminals from April this year. On March 10, the three biggest container lines – Maersk Line, MSC and CMA CGM – announced they were to start co-operating on three new services between China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the US west coast.
