The Brazilian authorities have cleared the “3J” merger between the big three Japanese shippers’ containerline and port assets. The approval, based on market share and availability of NVOCC competitors, is based on the European Commission’s principles and reached a similar conclusion to Singaporean authorities. A bigger issue may come in the U.S., where their port ownership is significant. Panjiva data shows the three will jointly own assets in 15 ports, including overlap in three (LA, Oakland and Jacksonville). In aggregate the ports accounted for 75% of U.S.-inbound traffic in 2016, tho...