The U.S. Department of Justice has charged four major shipping container manufacturers and seven executives with operating a cartel that allegedly doubled the price of standard dry containers over four years, significantly boosting profits for one company nearly 100-fold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The superseding indictment, unsealed Monday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses CIMC, Singamas Container Holdings, Dong Fang International Containers, and CXIC Group Containers of conspiring to limit production and fix prices of standard unrefrigerated shipping containers from November 2019 to at least January 2024. These actions allegedly violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.
One executive, Vick Nam Hing Ma, a marketing director at Singamas, was arrested in France on April 14 and is awaiting extradition to the U.S. Six other defendants remain at large, including Singamas chairman and CEO Siong Seng Teo and CIMC’s former president and CEO Boliang Mai. Teo, a prominent figure in Singapore’s shipping industry, has held leadership roles in the Singapore Shipping Association and Pacific International Lines (PIL), the world’s 12th largest container line. He also served as a member of Singapore’s parliament until 2014.
The indictment details that the alleged conspiracy began on November 14, 2019, when executives from CIMC, Dong Fang, and CXIC met at CIMC’s Shenzhen headquarters and agreed to restrict production by reducing shifts and hours on dry container production lines. To enforce compliance, the cartel reportedly installed 87 surveillance cameras across 49 production lines and implemented financial penalties for exceeding agreed output quotas. Singamas joined the arrangement by March 2020.
The price-fixing scheme had a significant impact on profits. CIMC’s container manufacturing earnings surged from $19.8 million in 2019 to $288 million in 2020 and $1.75 billion in 2021. Similarly, Singamas went from a $110 million net loss in 2019 to a $186.8 million profit in 2021.
“Global price-fixing cartels strike at the heart of our economic liberty,” said Omeed Assefi, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The defendants held the world’s supply of ocean shipping containers hostage during the COVID pandemic, a time when supply chains were under immense strain. They stole from everyday Americans who paid more and waited longer for essential goods.”
Violations of the Sherman Act carry severe penalties, including up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals, and up to $100 million for corporations. Fines may be doubled if the financial gains or losses exceed the statutory maximum.
The indictment follows a comprehensive investigation involving the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, and the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, with assistance from French authorities in securing Ma’s arrest.
This U.S. action comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny of the container shipping industry globally. Earlier this month, China’s Ministry of Transport fined nine international container shipping lines and seven NVOCCs for violating container freight-rate filing rules, following inspections at ports in Guangzhou, Qingdao, and Ningbo in late 2025. Companies fined included MSC, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express, Evergreen Marine, Wan Hai Lines, SM Line, Emirates Shipping Line, and TS Lines.