The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) said late today that it has approved the proposed four-carrier OCEAN vessel-sharing alliance, allowing the compact to become effective on Monday.
The alliance, comprised of COSCO Container Lines, CMA CGM, Evergreen Marine Corp., and Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd. (OOCL), will be allowed to share vessels, charter, and exchange space on each other's ships and enter into cooperative working arrangements in lanes linking the U.S. and worldwide ports, the FMC said.
FMC Chairman Mario Cordero said in a statement that the agency tried to "balance the needs of not only the OCEAN Alliance applicants, but all other parties involved in the intermodal supply chain, with the ultimate goal of safeguarding competition in international ocean-borne common carriage, with the American shipping public foremost in mind."
The agreement, Cordero said, "represents a consensus of what will allow OCEAN Alliance carriers to achieve efficiencies without harming the marketplace."
