DOJ Indicts Chinese Container Firms in Price-Fixing Case
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday unsealed a superseding indictment charging four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturers — all based in China — and seven of their executives with conspiring to restrict output and fix prices of standard dry shipping containers from at least November 2019 through January 2024, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The alleged conspiracy, which began with discussions as early as March 2019, roughly doubled container prices between 2019 and 2021 and increased manufacturer profits approximately one hundredfold during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Justice Department. One executive, Vick Nam Hing Ma, was arrested in France on April 14 and is awaiting extradition to the United States. Six other executives remain at large, believed to be in China or Singapore.
The Indictment
The four companies indicted — Singamas Container Holdings Ltd., China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd. (CIMC), Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment Co. (Dong Fang), and CXIC Group Containers Co., Ltd. — collectively control approximately 95% of the world’s standard dry shipping container market, impacting roughly $35 billion in global commerce.
The seven executives charged include Siong Seng Teo (Singamas CEO), Boliang Mai (CIMC CEO), Tianhua Huang (CIMC VP), Yongbo Wan (CIMC GM), Qianmin Li (Dong Fang GM), Yuqiang Zhang (CXIC CEO), and Vick Nam Hing Ma (Singamas Marketing Director).
According to the indictment, the conspirators met at CIMC’s headquarters in Shenzhen on November 14, 2019, where they agreed to limit production line shifts and hours, install 87 surveillance cameras on 49 production lines to monitor compliance, refrain from building new factories, and establish a penalty fund to punish any cheating on the output-restriction agreement.
“Global price-fixing cartels strike at the heart of our economic liberty,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The defendants held hostage the world’s supply of ocean shipping containers during the Covid pandemic when our supply chains needed it the most.”
Profiteering During a Global Crisis
The financial impact of the alleged conspiracy was staggering. CIMC’s container manufacturing profits soared from approximately $19.8 million in 2019 to $288 million in 2020 and $1.75 billion in 2021 — a nearly 100-fold increase. Singamas went from a $110 million loss in 2019 to $4.6 million in profit in 2020 and $186.8 million in 2021, as CBS News reported.
“At the height of the Covid pandemic, the defendants lined their own pockets by choking the world’s supply of shipping containers,” Assefi added.
The U.S. International Trade Commission reported that in the second half of 2020, the number of shipping containers in circulation was “insufficient to meet customer storage demands and higher than anticipated consumer demand for imports,” as the “unexpected recovery in demand shocked the distribution system.”
Political Timing and Diplomatic Sensitivity
The indictment was filed under seal in January 2025 in the Northern District of California and kept confidential until after President Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 — the first U.S. presidential visit to China since 2017. Sources told CBS News that Trump administration officials deliberately sought to keep the case from becoming public until after the summit.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward took aim at the previous administration while announcing the charges. “The last administration saw fit to prioritize the weaponization of the Department through novel criminal prosecution theories rather than focus on criminal actors most responsible for manipulating markets to profit from a global pandemic,” Woodward said. “Thankfully, this Department has righted that wrong.”
Broader COVID-19 Investigation Context
The shipping container case is part of a broader series of DOJ investigations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, federal prosecutors in Maryland secured the first COVID-19 origins case, indicting David Morens, a former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases employee accused of evading Freedom of Information Act requests related to COVID-19 research grants. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Director’s Initiatives Group, a panel created by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has also been investigating COVID-19 origins. This month, a senior CIA operations officer alleged to Congress that the agency obstructed those investigative efforts.
What’s Next
Vick Ma remains in custody in France pending extradition to the United States. The six other executives are believed to be beyond U.S. reach in China and Singapore, which do not have extradition treaties with the United States covering these charges. The companies named in the indictment did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, individuals face up to 10 years in prison and $1 million in criminal fines, while corporations face up to $100 million in fines, which may be increased to twice the gain derived from or loss caused by the crime.
The case raises significant questions about the vulnerability of global supply chains, where a small number of foreign companies control critical infrastructure, and about the future of U.S.-China trade relations following the recent Trump-Xi summit.