U.S. Charges Four of the World’s Largest Shipping Container Manufacturing Companies

On the brink of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the six manufacturers entered into a conspiracy to restrict how many standard containers they would all make. This allowed the companies to create an artificial shortage, which enabled them to raise container prices.The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted seven Chinese executives and four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturing companies for price fixing of standard unrefrigerated shipping containers.

The multi-year conspiracy, which took place over four years from November 2019 to January 2024, roughly doubled the prices of standard shipping containers between 2019 and 2021. This increased the container manufacturers’ profits approximately one hundredfold during the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain crisis.

According to the official statement, the companies indicted in the scam are Singamas Container Holdings Ltd, China International Marine Containers, Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment, and CXIC Group Containers Co. Ltd.

The Conspiracy
Several of the conspirators began discussing a scheme to restrict the output and fix the prices of standard dry shipping containers. The goal of the agreement was to raise the price of standard dry shipping containers. The accused did so by limiting the number of shifts and hours that each production line for standard dry containers could run per day, and 87 video surveillance cameras on all 49 dry container production lines to ensure that the companies did not exceed the agreed-upon limitations.

By September 2020, the conspirators agreed to restrict how many standard dry shipping containers the company conspirators would manufacture for particular customers. These customers included major U.S.-based container lessors, shipping lines, and logistics companies, in addition to container lessors, shipping lines, and logistics companies based in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, and elsewhere.On the brink of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the six manufacturers entered into a conspiracy to restrict how many standard containers they would all make. This allowed the companies to create an artificial shortage, which enabled them to raise container prices.

They created an antitrust cartel controlling 95 percent of all container manufacturing in the world. With their global market power, the conspiring manufacturers and their executives choked the supply of the containers needed to ship the world’s goods.

Supply Chains Held Hostage
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the Department of Justice is ensuring that when American pocketbooks are pilfered, accountability will follow. “And yet the last administration saw fit to prioritize the weaponisation of the Department through novel criminal prosecution theories rather than focus on criminal actors most responsible for manipulating markets to profit from a global pandemic.”

Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, stated that global price-fixing cartels strike at the heart of our economic liberty. “The defendants held hostage the world’s supply of ocean shipping containers during the Covid pandemic when our supply chains needed it the most. They stole from everyday Americans who paid more and waited longer for vital goods as a result.”

U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California, added that the defendants sought to exploit a global pandemic to increase their own profits. “Their illegal agreement to fix prices and limit supply of these shipping containers resulted in the American consumer paying more and waiting longer for critical goods.”

Source: seanews.co.uk.      Nandika Chand