Ripples from a CMA CGM takeover of APL will rock alliances, Singapore and Port Klang

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Let’s begin with the assumption that none of the world’s three most important regulatory regimes – the US’s Federal Maritime Commission; the EU’s competition commission and China’s ministry of commerce – is going to block CMA CGM’s acquisition of NOL and its liner arm APL.

Even if the two companies manage to hold onto to all their current business, post-merger (something that remains unlikely if past mergers in the shipping industry is anything to go by), their combined market shares, as ...