New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) The United States Department of Justice has indicted seven Chinese executives and four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturing companies for allegedly conspiring to restrict output and fix prices of standard shipping containers during the Covid-19 pandemic, a move authorities said inflated global prices and disrupted supply chains.

According to the superseding indictment unsealed by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the alleged conspiracy ran from as early as November 2019 until at least January 2024 and involved nearly all of the world’s standard unrefrigerated shipping containers, commonly known as dry shipping containers.

US authorities alleged that the conspiracy roughly doubled the prices of standard shipping containers between 2019 and 2021, allowing manufacturers to dramatically increase profits during a period marked by severe global supply chain disruptions.

One of the accused executives, Vick Nam Hing Ma, also known as Vick Ma, was arrested in France on April 14, 2026, and is currently awaiting extradition to the United States.

Ma served as Marketing Director at Singamas Container Holdings Ltd.. Six other executive co-defendants remain at large.

The indictment named four major container manufacturing firms, including Singamas Container Holdings Ltd., China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment Co., Ltd. and CXIC Group Containers Co. Ltd..

US prosecutors alleged that senior executives from these firms coordinated production cuts and pricing strategies to artificially raise container prices globally.

Authorities said the companies controlled a substantial portion of the worldwide dry shipping container market.

The indictment stated that executives met at the headquarters of China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen in November 2019 to formalise the arrangement.

The alleged measures included limiting factory operating hours, restricting production shifts, avoiding construction of new factories and installing 87 surveillance cameras across 49 production lines to monitor compliance with agreed output caps.

The companies and executives are also accused of establishing a financial penalty mechanism to punish any manufacturer that violated the production restrictions.

According to the Justice Department, the conspirators later expanded the arrangement to include production quotas for specific customers, including major US-based shipping lines, logistics firms and container leasing companies.

–IANS

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