US charges 7 Chinese executives and 4 shipping firms linked to container cartel

⁠The ⁠US has ⁠charged seven Chinese executives and four of the world’s largest shipping container companies with conspiring to restrict supply, raising the price ‌of containers during the Covid-19 pandemic, Department of Justice officials said on Tuesday.

The companies together manufacture about 95 per cent of the world’s standard dry shipping containers and conspired to ⁠restrict output and fix prices between November 2019 ‌and January 2024, the DOJ said.

Prosecutors allege the scheme resulted in US consumers ‌paying more, and waiting longer, for ⁠goods ⁠during the pandemic.

“Around the start of the global pandemic, these manufacturers ‌exploited the crisis and their market power to squeeze the supply ‌chain ‌for profit,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward ‌said while announcing the case.

One of the ⁠executives, Vick Ma, 54, a marketing director Singamas Container ⁠Holdings, was arrested in France in April, the DOJ said. Singamas did not ‌immediately respond ‌to a request for comment on the allegations.