NEW DELHI — The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted seven Chinese executives and four major shipping container manufacturers over an alleged global conspiracy to restrict production and fix prices for standard shipping containers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a superseding indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the alleged scheme began as early as November 2019 and continued until at least January 2024. Prosecutors said it affected nearly all of the world’s standard unrefrigerated shipping containers, commonly known as dry shipping containers.
U.S. authorities alleged that the conspiracy roughly doubled prices for standard shipping containers between 2019 and 2021, allowing manufacturers to sharply increase profits during a period of severe global supply chain disruption.
One of the accused executives, Vick Nam Hing Ma, also known as Vick Ma, was arrested in France on April 14, 2026, and is awaiting extradition to the United States. Ma served as marketing director at Singamas Container Holdings Ltd. Six other executive defendants remain at large.
The indictment named four container manufacturing companies: Singamas Container Holdings Ltd., China International Marine Containers (Group) Co. Ltd., Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment Co. Ltd. and CXIC Group Containers Co. Ltd.
Prosecutors alleged that senior executives from the companies coordinated production cuts and pricing strategies to artificially increase container prices worldwide. Authorities said the companies controlled a substantial share of the global dry shipping container market.
The indictment said executives met at the headquarters of China International Marine Containers in Shenzhen in November 2019 to formalize the arrangement.
Prosecutors said the alleged measures included limiting factory operating hours, restricting production shifts, avoiding the construction of new factories and installing 87 surveillance cameras across 49 production lines to monitor compliance with output limits.
The companies and executives were also accused of creating a financial penalty system to punish manufacturers that violated the production restrictions.
According to the Justice Department, the alleged conspirators later expanded the arrangement to include production quotas for specific customers, including major U.S.-based shipping lines, logistics companies and container leasing firms. (Source: IANS)
