Groups and conglomerates. (shipping industry)(Special Report)(Cover Story)

Shipping companies operating within groups or conglomerates appear to benefit from a strong corporate backup and a generous parental checkbook. But the relationship between subsidiary and parent is often difficult to analyze.

Increasingly, liner shipping companies belong to major industrial conglomerates or to transport-based groups.

Research by American Shipper shows that no fewer than 16 medium-sized or large shipping companies are linked, to varying degrees, to large corporate parents (see Table 7, "Industrial conglomerates and transport groups active in container shipping").

Depending on which definition of "group" is used, this table could also have included the Evergreen group, Lykes Lines and Matson Navigation.

The interests of the Evergreen group (which does not publicize its total group revenues) range from shipping to airline and shipyard activities. Similarly, privately owned Lykes Lines belongs to a large family business group. And Matson is a part of Hawaiian …