the EU commission has authorized the concentration between Hamburg Süd and Maersk Line



The EU commission has approved of the plan of acquisition of the branch of the containerized marine transport of the German Hamburg Süd, that it is the ninth world-wide company of this field for cargo ability of its fleet of 130 portacontainer, by the shipowning society Danish Maersk Line, that it is the company world leader of the field with a fleet of 611 portacontainer, authorizing it on condition that some conditions are satisfied.

The concentration project is announced at the end last year ( on 1° December 2016) and it is notified to the Commission 20th February. In order to answer to the worries of the EU commission in competition topic, the Maersk Danish has engaged himself to place term in the participation of Hamburg Süd to five shipowning consortia, that is the consortium Eurosal 1/SAWC, that she covers the routes between the North Europe and the Central America and the Caribbean, Eurosal 2/SAWC, that she regards the connections between the Europe North and the western coast of South America, EPIC 2, that she covers the services between the Europe North and the Middle East, the CCWM/Medandes, relative to the routes between the Mediterranean and the western coast of South America, and consortium MESA, than one takes care of the services between the Mediterranean and the coast oriental of South America.

For the Commission, the new concentration between Maersk Line and the company of navigation of Amburgo would have in fact the power to relatively exercise an infuence on the parameters key of the competition to these marine connections, parameters between which the relative cargo ability to great part of these markets.

According to Brussels, however, the engagements proposed from the Danish company are sufficient "to completely eliminate the problematic ties between Maersk Line and the consortia of the Hamburg Süd that the operation would have determined".

Alla Hamburg Süd will be allowed to continue to participate to the five consortia during the period of warning, but a fiduciary will be charged to control that during this period no information that could be used for anti-competitive scopes will be exchanged between the five consortia and the new concentration between Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd.

The EU commission has not instead found particular worries for competition relatively to other fields in which the two companies operate, in consideration is of the connections limited between Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd in the fields of the short sea shipping and the services tramp, of the services of line (on the routes in which the five consortia) and of the harbour terminals for handling of the container, let alone in the sections of the harbor tug, shipments, the manufacturing of container and the terrestrial transports do not operate is in consideration of numerous the other suppliers of services that operate in these markets.