Maersk teams up with Alibaba to offer online booking of space on ships
Shanghai — Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, has teamed up with Alibaba to enable customers to reserve space on its vessels through the Chinese company, illustrating growing co-operation between e-commerce and logistics firms. Maersk, a unit of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, began offering the service to Chinese shippers on Alibaba’s OneTouch booking website on December 22, a spokeswoman for the shipping line said on Wednesday. Shippers traditionally go through freight forwarders to book space for goods on container vessels, but lines such as Maersk are allowing cargo owners to book directly via the internet. E-commerce companies are increasingly venturing into logistics activities to try to gain better control over their supply chain networks. Amazon.com has registered a Chinese business as a freight forwarder and has leased aircraft to handle more of its own deliveries in the United States. Alibaba, owner of China’s largest e-commerce platforms, has been making inr...
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