The Reason Of M&A In Shipping Liner Industry

In the international shipping liner industry, the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) speeded up year by year. In 2005, the amount of M&A was up to 6.064 billion. Most specialists said, the M&A will go on taking place and nobody can hinder this trend.It is very important to know the accurate reason of the M&A in shipping liner industry for improving shipping liner company's competitiveness and margin rate. This thesis concludes and proves the new idea that the reason of M&A in shipping liner industry is to obtain pricing capacity, aiming at deeply analyzing the reason of M&A in shipping liner industry and making the shipping liner companies realize the importance of M&A for obtaining pricing capacity. And hope they can enhance their competitiveness and get the success by M&A. Maybe this is useful for the development of Chinese shipping liner companies.Firstly, this thesis introduces some theories about the reason of M&A, and gives its own idea about reason of M&A in shipping liner industry combining those theories. Secondly, give the details of M&A in shipping liner industry, analyze the characteristics, and forecast that M&A in shipping liner industry will go on taking place and nobody can hinder this trend.Thirdly, analyze the traits of shipping liner products from the scale economy, the discrepancies of products, market barrier and the hazard of excessive competition. Then utilize standard of concentration type of industry of Bain and absolute concentration rate to judge the market structure of global container transport market. Combining the different pricing method in different period, conclude that the pricing method is deciding the price initiatively at present, and the obtainment of the pricing capability is very important. As we know,the pricing capacity can decide the ability of avoiding risk and transferring the cost pressure, the success in competition and the margin rate. And the pricing capacity is decided by the productivity of the shipping liner company and their market share at present. So we conclude the hypothesis that the reason of M&A in shipping liner industry is to obtain pricing capacity.Fourthly,using the game theory, explain it can get win-win if Maersk is the price leader , and other shipping liner companies make the price follow Maersk. And we analyze the pricing capacity of Maersk after it merged the P&O Nedlloyd. So we prove it is right that the hypothesis which the reason of M&A in shipping liner industry is to obtain pricing capacity.Finally,We analyze the situation of shipping liner company in China, and suggest it is very important to improve the competing ability by M&A. Provide some suggestions about how to develop better for Chinese shipping liner companies.