Far East joint venture split rumoured

ALAN PEAT
THERE IS a strong rumour circulating in the shipping industry that CMA CGM may be splitting off from CSAV on the current joint-venture service on the Far East-SA-East Coast South America trade.
The suggestion is that this split would probably lead to two services taking to the seas instead of the current one. This extra supply of tonnage would join that resulting from the two separate services due to be offered by Safari and MSC in April after their separation.
This, therefore, raises the concern that the current over-demand situation would revert to one of over-supply of tonnage – and rate-cutting might again raise its ugly head on the trade.
But no official words are yet available from either of the principals in the CMA CGM/CSAV combine, and this concern still remains hypothetical.