Smaller shipping lines are finding themselves pushed out of the way as the industry's biggest names deal with the international downtown through consolidation.  It has some considering selling off their assetts while the still can.

Israel's Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. is denying reports it is exploring a sale of its global container network, which would happen as part of a downsizing plan that would transform the company into a regional Mediterranean shipper.  But sources close to the company insist to the Wall Street Journal that "the part they want sell is their ships and customer base on the routes they have from Asia to the US, from Asia to the East Mediterranean, and from the Mediterranean to the US". 

Zim has 19 container ships, but only seven would be of interest to potential buyers because they each can hold up to 10,000 cargo containers.  The rest are smaller, and increasingly meaningless in a Post-Panamax, Neo Panamax, and Ultra Large Container Vessel (ULCV) world of giant ships that can haul thousands more containers across the oceans.  But the smaller ships could strengthen Zim's position at home gives it stability in short-haul markets below the radar of the big alliances, which Zim can't join:  Arab countries that don't recognize Israel won't admit its ships into their ports.

"That leaves them in a precarious situation," said Lars Jensen, chief executive of SeaIntelligence consulting in Copenhagen.  "They can ether grow in scale to compete with the big boys - something they can't afford, or become smaller and focus on a niche.  Being a Mediterranean player also serves the strategic interests of the state of Israel."