Comment / Analysis: Maersk-Alibaba tie-up 'a sign of the changing times'

03/02/2017

As soon as I returned to work after the Christmas break, news broke that Maersk had begun its promised digitisation revolution.

The partner it chose to pilot a booking project was OneTouch, and its owner, Alibaba, is one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms as well as a major shipper competing with Amazon for worldwide dominance in e-commerce.

The deal per se represents a meaningful strategic development for Maersk Line – it is “a first in container shipping”, we pointed out on 4 ...

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David Snell
February 03, 2017 at 2:21 pm
Hi. Thanks for this – very interesting. I wonder how many buyers using Alibaba/Amazon purchase goods in sufficient quantities to fill full containers? Maersk and other container shipping lines do not offer LCL (less than container load) services which, unless I am missing something, means that the vast majority of buyers using Alibaba/Amazon will not be able to use the new Maersk/Alibaba platform….

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- Ale Pasetti
  February 03, 2017 at 4:21 pm
  Great point. I think you might be right and I will look for that data. Thanks much, David.
  
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  - Mitul D
    February 04, 2017 at 7:52 pm
    I too would be interested to see if you can get more data around..
    Thanks
    
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    - Ale Pasetti
      February 06, 2017 at 12:26 pm
      At a glance, it is not publicly available. Will need to look into the 10ks again. Added to my to-do list, Mitul D. Thanks for stopping by.
      
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