Supply Chain Research

The merger of COSCO Shipping and Orient Overseas has received Chinese antitrust approval, allowing it to move to completion. U.S. regulatory requirements (CFIUS) may be addressed by placing the Long Beach port assets into a trust structure. The combined COSCO-Orient will be the third largest container-line globally by capacity with 2.73 million TEUs, which will grow by 12% once current orders are delivered. The next challenge will be to rationalize fleets, routes and purchasing to boost profits. Analysts’ estimates expect the combined firm’s EBITDA margin to drop to 8.0% in 2018 from 8.3...