The British International Freight Association (BIFA) has written to the UK government asking it to investigate the state of competition within the current deep sea container shipping market, claiming that certain practices undertaken by the principal container shipping lines are distorting the operations of the free market to the detriment of international trade.
In particular, BIFA’s Director General Robert Keen expressed the trade association’s concern that during a period of well-documented chaos within the container shipping sector, commercial power is becoming increasingly concentrated, resulting in diminished market choice and competition, and distorted market conditions
In 2015, there were 27 major container shipping lines carrying global containerised trade, with the largest having a 15.3% market share. Today, there are 15 shipping lines, organised into three major alliances carrying that trade, with some analysts observing that the market share of a single alliance on certain key routes could be over 40%.
Mr. Keen wrote in a letter to Robert Courts MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, adding also that Drewry recently issued a profit forecast of more than USD150 billion for 2021 for the main container shipping lines for which financial results are available. ”To put that into perspective, this is more than has been achieved in the previous 20 years combined, and many BIFA members consider it to be a case of blatant profiteering.” Mr Keen explained.
