Collusive pricing detection in ocean container transport: A case study of Maritime Silk Road

This chapter develops a non-cooperative game theoretic model to detect the collusive pricing solutions between liner shipping companies and corresponding container terminals. According to the game equilibrium results based on market pricing, a direct and applicable indicator is proposed, that is the ratio of freight rates between the liner shipping companies, by testing 24 liner routes from the Far East to the Mediterranean region along the Maritime Silk Road, collusive pricing solution is independent of designed capacity under one pair colludes, while positive correlation with designed capacity in double collusion. Our finding reveals that the collusive pricing solution would be most likely to occur between the liner shipping company, under the scenarios of low or medium level competition, and corresponding container terminal with lower designed capacity.