中国海运集装箱制造商高管被控全球反垄断阴谋

May 2026 On May 19, 2026, theDepartment of Justice (DOJ)revealedindictments against four of thelargest Chinese container manufacturing companies and seven executives for allegedlyconspiring to restrict the output of, and fix prices for, standard unrefrigerated shipping About the alleged conspiracy Thesuperseding indictmentidentifies the four corporate defendants as: (1) Singamas Container Holdings Ltd. (Singamas); (2) China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd. (CIMC (3) Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment Co., Ltd. (Dong Fang)and (4) CXIC Group Containers Co. Ltd (CXIC). The superseding indictment also references two corporate co-conspirators thathave not been indicted. The seven executives charged are all foreign nationals located abroad. Vick Ma, the marketing directorof Singamas, was arrested at an airport in France in April, as a result of a joint effort with French law enforcement. The DOJ alleges that four of the defendant companies met at CIMC’s headquarters in China in November 2019, where theyreached an illegal agreement to restrict production of standard dry shipping containers in order to drive up prices. Specifically,they allegedly agreed to limit the number of shifts each production line could run, install video cameras on production linesto monitor each other’s compliance, not build any new containers and financially penalize any party not participating in the The alleged conspiracy spanned from at least November 2019 to January 2024, during the height of the global supply chaincrisis, and led to the nearly doubling of prices for standard shipping containers and a one hundredfold increase in profits for the Why this matters to companies and executives •Shipping, logistics industries impacted– Based on the superseding indictment, the scope of the alleged scheme wasbroad and impacted the dry shipping container and potentially refrigerated shipping container industry. Customers, andtherefore alleged victims of the scheme, include container lessors, shipping lines and logistics companies based in the US, •DOJ targets foreign companies, conduct overseas–These indictments signal the Antitrust Division’s willingness to targetforeign companies and antitrust conduct abroad. Section 1 has broad extraterritorial reach. Companies and individualsthat engage in price-fixing, market allocation, bid-rigging or output restriction schemes outside the US can still face criminal •Executives abroad still face prosecution– While US courts cannot hail indicted individuals located abroad into court,individuals can still be provisionally arrested and deported to the US to face charges. When the DOJ charges an individualknown to be abroad, it routinely requests that the International Criminal Police Organization issue a so-called red notice,which is a request to law enforcement agencies across the world to provisionally arrest that individual so that the US can Lauren BriggermanPartner, Washington DCT +1 202 457 5318E lauren.briggerman@squirepb.com Katherine von SchaumburgAssociate, Washington DCT +1 202 457 7645E katherine.vonschaumburg@squirepb.com Michael S. WisePartner, Washington DCT +1 202 457 5239E michael.wise@squirepb.com