Comment / The PSA case: ports and carriers – the ties that bind

Photo 14301170 © Yury Asotov | Dreamstime.com

At the turn of the century Maersk Sealand – almost certainly inadvertently – taught the shipping sector a salutary lesson, the effects of which are clearly visible today across the port industry.

What was then the largest shipping line in the world, by some margin, had been locked in negotiations with Singapore port owner PSA for months over a request to jointly own or operate a dedicated terminal in the transhipment hub.

But PSA’s executives stubbornly refused, holding on to the notion ...