Brenda Goh News

Chinese automakers and shippers are ordering a record number of car-carrying vessels to support a boom in EV exports, data showed, putting China on course to amass the world's fourth-largest fleet by 2028.China currently has the world's eighth-largest fleet with 33 car-carrying ships, showed data from shipping consultancy Veson Nautical. Japan has the world's largest with 283 ships, followed by Norway's 102, South Korea's 72 and Isle of Man's 61.But Chinese companies have 47 ships on order, accounting for a quarter of all orders globally.

BYD's first chartered vehicle carrier has set sail from China's southern city of Shenzhen, carrying more than 5,000 electric vehicles to Europe, state media Xinhua reported on Tuesday.Chinese automakers including BYD, Chery Automobile and SAIC Motor, have been placing orders for vessels to counter rising shipping costs as they boost exports.The new roll-on, roll-off vehicle carrier named "BYD Explorer No.1" departed on Monday for Flushing Port in the Netherlands and the German port of Bremerhaven…

China’s exports to North Korea surged in 46.3% October from a month earlier, with foodstuffs including rice and sugar among the main items, though it shipped less COVID-related items except for rubber gloves, Chinese customs data showed on Sunday.Totaling $132.43 million in October, China’s exports to North Korea were 2.5 times more than a year ago.

Germany may allow China's Cosco to take a smaller stake than originally planned in a Hamburg port terminal, in what an economy ministry source on Tuesday described as an "emergency solution" to approve the deal but mitigate the impact.Shipping giant Cosco made a bid last year to take a 35% stake in one of logistics firm HHLA's three terminals in Germany's largest port, but the German coalition has been divided over whether to let the deal go ahead.The compromise would see Berlin approving a sale of 24.9% of the terminal to Cosco, several government sources said.

Danish shipper Maersk said the Shanghai lockdown will severely hurt trucking services and increase transport costs, as China's intensifying efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 further rattles global supply chains.The Chinese coastal city, home to some of the world's busiest sea and airports, began locking down half of the city on Monday and intends to do the same to the other half for four days starting Friday in a two-stage testing exercise.While it has kept its airports and deepwater port open…

The queues of container ships outside major Chinese ports are lengthening by the day as COVID-19 outbreaks in manufacturing export hubs threaten to unleash a fresh wave of global supply chain shocks, ship owners, logistics firms and analysts say.China is experiencing its biggest spike in COVID-19 infections since an initial outbreak in the central city of Wuhan was contained in early 2020.The spread of the highly-infectious Omicron variant this month has led to movement controls across China…

The Trump administration added China’s CNOOC to a U.S. economic blacklist on Thursday, accusing the oil giant of helping Beijing intimidate neighbors in the South China Sea and ratcheting up tension days before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office.Alongside blacklisting CNOOC, the Commerce Department added China’s Skyrizon to the Military End-User (MEU) List over its ability to develop military products including aircraft engines, restricting its access to U.S. exports.CNOOC…

China on Tuesday formally established China Shipbuilding Group, which the country's government-run broadcaster described as the world's largest shipbuilder.The group's establishment, reported by China Central Television (CCTV), comes after Beijing last month approved the merger of the country's two largest shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding Corp and China Shipbuilding Industry Co.The group has 147 research institutes, business units and listed firms, as well as total assets of 790 billion yuan ($112 billion) and 310,000 workers, CCTV said.

China's COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd said trade frictions and high oil prices pose risks for the global shipping industry this year, after confirming on Friday that its net profit for 2018 fell by more than half.The state-owned company, the world's third largest container shipping line, said net profit attributable to shareholders slid 53.8 percent to 1.2 billion yuan ($178.83 million) last year from 2.7 billion yuan a year earlier.It had warned profit would slump in January.Revenue rose 33.6 percent as demand for its container shipping and terminal business remained strong, COSCO said.

China's COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd on Thursday said first-half profits fell 97.8 percent as it grappled with higher costs and a slide in freight rates.China's largest shipping group, which has bought a Hong Kong peer to become the world's third-largest container liner, said January-June net profit was 40.8 million yuan ($6 million), down from 1.86 billion yuan in the same period last year.After a prolonged slump, the global container shipping industry entered a period of recovery last year. However, COSCO said the delivery of a number of new large ships had worsened the industry's current oversupply of vessels, pressuring rates.In July, a key U.S.

European Union and Italian authorities are investigating suspected wide-scale tax fraud by Chinese criminal gangs importing goods via Greece’s largest port of Piraeus, a trade gateway between China and Europe, officials said.“The VAT is completely evaded, with enormous damage to the national tax authorities and to the community,” Fabio Botto, of the Italian Central Anti-fraud Office’s special investigative unit, said in an interview.He said the suspected scam at Piraeus, part of China’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure project…

China aims to establish a free trade zone in Hainan by 2020 and will encourage multinationals to set up their international and regional headquarters in the province, state news agency Xinhua reported citing a government document. The guidance was jointly issued by the ruling Communist Party and State Council, Xinhua said. It comes after President Xi Jinping announced on Friday that the country would grant foreign firms greater economic freedom in the southernmost province. Known for its sandy beaches and resort-lined coast…

Deal waiting for green light from CFIUS, China regulators; COSCO says keeping close eye on US-China trade tensions. COSCO Shipping's planned acquisition of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) is on track to be completed by the end of June, the company's vice chairman Huang Xiaowen said on Tuesday. COSCO is still answering questions from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States on the deal, and is also awaiting a number of domestic approvals, Huang told a press conference in Shanghai. He said the deal needed U.S. approval as OOCL had some assets in that country. "Up to now we are quite confident to push forward this acquisition ... it's progressing normally," he said.

China's cabinet has given preliminary approval to merge the country's two largest shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding Corp with China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.   It said the move, which will create a firm that will dwarf its South Korean rivals such as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co , could still be subject to change as many details needed to be ironed out by ministries and regulators.   The two companies have multiple shipyards across China whose products range from aircraft carriers to commercial ships which carry oil and gas.   Reporting by Brenda Goh

COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd said it expects further growth in container shipping demand thanks to a continued recovery in global trade, after reporting it had swung to a net profit of $429.42 million for 2017. COSCO's optimism, which comes after Hong Kong peer Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOII) reported a profitable year, indicates that a recovery in the global container shipping industry could be here to stay. Shipping saw signs of improvement in 2017 after enduring its longest ever slump wrought by overcapacity and slow economic growth…

China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) said on Monday Lei Fanpei would become the Chinese state shipbuilder's new chairman, replacing the incumbent Dong Qiang.   Lei will relinquish his duties as the chairman at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's space agency, CSSC said in a statement on its website. It did not say where Dong would move to.   CSSC is one of China's two largest shipbuilding conglomerates, alongside its rival China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. Its yards include Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding whose products range from cruise ships to frigates and its listed unit is China CSSC Holdings.   Reporting by Brenda Goh

China on Friday denied reports it has been illicitly selling oil products to North Korea after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not happy that China had allowed oil to reach the isolated nation. Trump said on Twitter the previous day that China had been "caught" allowing oil into North Korea and that would prevent "a friendly solution" to the crisis over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes that it conducts in defiance of heavy U.N. Security Council sanctions. "I have been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war…

China's COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd reported a first-half profit on Wednesday and forecast that improved demand in the container shipping market would continue for the rest of the year. China's largest shipping group, which last month offered to buy a Hong Kong peer to become the world's third-largest container liner, said January-June net profit was 1.86 billion yuan ($288.32 million). That matched an estimate it announced in July, citing improved market conditions. It also booked revenues of 43.5 billion yuan for the period. COSCO Group booked a 7.2 billion yuan loss in the first half of last year before merging with China Shipping Group to create COSCO Shipping.

COSCO Shipping Holdings expects to post a profit of around 1.85 billion yuan ($272 million) in the first half, helped by an improving shipping market. The world's fourth-largest container shipping line made the forecast in a stock market statement on Thursday. It recorded a loss of 7.2 billion yuan in the same period last year. "Freight rates for container shipping operations have increased year-on-year, container volumes have grown 34.72 percent, and earnings have continued to grow from the base set in the fourth quarter of last year," it said. Several of the company's peers have said in recent months that the global shipping industry is emerging from a prolonged slump. In May, French container shipping line CMA CGM posted its second straight quarterly profit.

Asia CEO said ports have resumed releasing cargo; will discuss settlement, liability issues with customers. Maersk said it was too early to predict the financial impact of last month's global Petya cyber attack that hit the shipping giant's computers and delayed cargoes, but added that normal operations had resumed at its ports. A.P. Moller-Maersk, Danish owner of the world's biggest container shipping line, operates 76 ports via its APM Terminal division and was one of the many firms hit by the ransomware virus along with Russia's Rosneft and advertising agency WPP. For the shipping sector, this was among the biggest-ever disruptions given Maersk handles one out of seven containers shipped globally.

COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd saw its stock climb on Monday after bidding $6.3 billion for a Hong Kong peer, a deal that would see it become the world's third-biggest container shipper and underline China's supply-chain ambitions. The offer for Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) comes as China's government pushes to raise the country's profile in global shipping, which dovetails with its Belt and Road initiative aimed at increasing China's influence over distribution from Asia to Europe. Beijing merged two shippers last year to form COSCO Shipping which, after the latest deal, will rise from fourth to rank only behind Denmark's Maersk Line and Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).

A Shanghai district government plans to spend about 5 billion yuan ($739.97 million) to develop a cruise ship industrial park to house foreign firms that it hopes will help build China's first luxury passenger vessels, a local official said. China's government has earmarked cruise shipbuilding as a major objective in its "Made in China 2025" programme to upgrade its manufacturing and support jobs at its shipyards, as domestic demand for cruise trips increases 30 percent a year. Firms who set up shop in the new zone could expect financing support from banks and recently established government funds, Lei Shuguang, director on the administrative committee of Shanghai Baoshan Industrial Zone, told Reuters on Wednesday.

French shipping group CMA CGM plans to build nine of the world's largest container ships at two Chinese shipyards, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday. Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co confirmed that it and its sister yard Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co, had received a letter of intent from CMA CGM for the ships, which would be capable of carrying 22,000 20-foot equivalent unit containers (TEU), the newspaper said. The final order was subject to board approval from both sides, the newspaper said. Both yards are owned by state-run China State Shipbuilding Corporation. CMA CGM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Calls to Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding outside office hours were not immediately answered.