So, Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM will not be allowed to form what would have been the largest mega-alliance in the shipping industry. But what are the implications, and what is likely to happen next? Drewry Martime Research consider these questions in their latest Container Insight Weekly. China’s regulators have blocked the P3 mega-alliance between Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM on the grounds that it infringes the country’s competition laws between Asia and Europe, particularly with respect to the lines’ combined market share of 46.7%. The law enforcers appear to believe that the cost reductions gained by the P3 carriers would either have been offset by this unacceptably high risk of market concentration, or would not have been passed back to shippers satisfactorily.