China’s dominance in container manufacturing – both dry and reefers – has been discussed repeatedly by politicians in Washington DC in recent years, and is something that is very much in the spotlight this week following the US Department of Justice indicting four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturers and seven executives for running what has been described as a cartel that roughly doubled the price of standard dry containers over four years and drove profits at one of the companies up nearly one hundredfold during the covid pandemic.

Chinese factories now account for more than 95% of the world’s dry cargo containers and nearly 100% of the world’s refrigerated containers.

Four years ago, the US Justice Department, then during the Biden administration, stopped the sale of Maerk’s reefer manufacturing unit over fears it would give the Chinese too great a control of a strategic business.

Back in 2022, Carl Bentzel, then a commissioner at the Federal Maritime Commission, published a 28-page report following his year-long investigation into the stranglehold Chinese companies have in the manufacturing of containers and intermodal chassis.

Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and other low‑cost Asian players are already angling to chisel market share from China by offering competitive pricing and proximity to key shipping hubs. 

Container manufacturing giants CIMC, Singamas Container Holdings, Dong Fang International Containers and CXIC Group Containers were charged on Monday with conspiring to restrict output and fix prices of standard unrefrigerated shipping containers from as early as November 2019 to at least January 2024, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

One executive, Vick Nam Hing Ma, a marketing director at Singamas, was arrested in France on April 14 and his extradition to the United States is pending. Six co-defendants remain at large, including Singamas chairman and CEO Siong Seng Teo and CIMC’s former president and CEO Boliang Mai. Teo is one of the best-known names in Singapore shipping, having headed up the Singapore Shipping Association for many years as well as controlling Pacific International Lines (PIL), the world’s twelfth largest containerline. He was also a member of parliament in Singapore for five years through to 2014. 

According to the indictment, the conspiracy began in earnest on November 14, 2019, when executives from CIMC, Dong Fang and CXIC met at CIMC’s headquarters in Shenzhen and agreed to restrict production by limiting shifts and hours on dry container production lines. To police compliance, the so-called cartel installed 87 surveillance cameras across 49 production lines. A financial penalty mechanism was established to punish any member that exceeded its agreed output quota. Singamas joined the arrangement by at least March 2020.

The effect on prices was dramatic. CIMC’s container manufacturing profits rose from $19.8m in 2019 to $288m in 2020 and $1.75bn in 2021. Singamas swung from a $110m net loss in 2019 to a $186.8m profit in 2021.

“Global price-fixing cartels strike at the heart of our economic liberty,” said Omeed Assefi, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “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.”

A Sherman Act violation carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1m criminal fine for individuals, and up to $100m for corporations, with fines potentially doubled if gains or losses exceed the statutory maximum.

The share prices of CIMC and Singamas nosedived in trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong today.