The European Commission’s conditional approval for Hapag-Lloyd’s takeover of UASC requires withdrawal from the NEU1 consortium. This shouldn’t be a big deal given UASC was going to become part of THE Alliance anyway. The combined companies had already been aggressively growing market share on the north Europe to North America routes highlighted by the EC. Their combined volumes jumped 27% in the three months to October 31 vs. 10% for all shippers on the routes, Panjiva data shows.