China Shipping Group News

China’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered boat “Three Gorges Hydrogen Boat No. 1” has been launched in Guangdong.“Three Gorges Hydrogen Boat No. 1” is a 164 foot long, 33 foot wide passenger catamaran capable of reaching a maximum speed of 17 miles/hr. It is powered by a 500 kW hydrogen fuel cell with a 1,800 kWh lithium battery system and has a range of 124 miles. The steel-hulled vessel has an aluminum superstructure and glass curtain wall construction.It is expected to lead…

Bottlenecks in global container shipping could worsen later this year as a result of new COVID-19 lockdown measures in China, shipping group Maersk warned on Wednesday.Maersk, often seen as a barometer for global trade, said a surge in consumer demand, pandemic-related congestion in major ports and more recently an airspace closure following Russia's invasion of Ukraine have slowed down container shipments and prompted a spike in freight rates."Further challenges arise from the ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns in China…

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.

Chinese Shipping Major Cosco Group has agreed in principle to buy its shipping rival and  Hong Kong’s No. 1 box mover, Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), in deal that could be valued around USD 6.3 billion. The takeover will catapult Cosco the world’s third-biggest container carrier after Denmark’s Maersk Line and Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. In a press release, the State-owned Cosco said that it will pay shareholders of OOCL,, HK$78.67 a share in cash, a 31 percent premium over the stock’s last closing price. According to Reuters,  OOIL's controlling shareholders had on Friday agreed to sell their 68.7 percent stake at that price to COSCO Shipping, which is making the offer with Shanghai Port International Group (SIPG) that will take 9.9 percent, they said.

COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co is planning to cut the number of shipyards that are able to manufacture offshore engineering products from five to two by 2020, China Daily reported. China's third largest shipbuilder by output makes this move as the company's latest effort to cut overcapacity, since the global market is unlikely to see a notable upturn anytime soon. Under the plan, its shipyards in Nantong, Zhoushan and Dongguan will be shut down. The company will keep manufacturing bases in Qidong and Dalian as they are capable of producing high-end offshore engineering products such as polar ships, oil drilling platforms and cattle carriers. A few months ago, China Cosco Shipping Group has integrated all of its shipbuilding assets into one unit – Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (CSHI).

Cosco Shipping Holdings (CSH)has announced that its profit for 2016 will be below that of 2015, reports Reuters. The container shipping arm of state-owned China Cosco Shipping Corp expects to post a net loss of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) for 2016, citing the impact of asset disposal and a weak freight market. On some trade lanes, including the high-volume route between Asia and Europe, average revenues per TEU in 2016 were at record lows. Cosco said that freight rates began to recover in the fourth quarter which likely helped it to a 700 million yuan fourth-quarter profit before interest and tax. The forecast full-year loss would be Cosco Shipping’s weakest annual performance since 2011 after the firm began restructuring last year in response to a prolonged market downturn.

BIMCO today presented three awards to recognise and celebrate excellence in the global shipping industry among both companies and individuals in the industry – following BIMCO’s conference in Shanghai. This year the importance of leadership, innovation and pioneering business strategy in shipping were clearly recognised by the judges in the choice of winners. BIMCO President Philippe Louis-Dreyfus chose to give the BIMCO President’s Award to the Tung family from Hong Kong, who run OOCL among other companies. The award celebrates an individual, family or company who has made a significant contribution to shipping and the maritime industry. The award was received by CC Tung, on behalf of the family.

China’s two biggest state-owned shipping companies plan to merge 11 shipbuilding yards into a single entity in one of the industry’s biggest consolidation moves yet, reports Wall Street Journal. China’s two biggest state-owned shipping companies plan to merge 11 shipbuilding yards into a single entity in one of the industry’s biggest consolidation moves yet, the Wall Street Journal reports. The two companies had already combined their fleets and port operations last year to create China COSCO Holdings, the world’s fourth biggest container operator in terms of capacity. The combination of their shipbuilding arms will create China’s third biggest shipbuilding group. Cosco owns six yards and China Shipping Group owns five.

Asia’s largest container shipping company China Cosco Holdings Co  posted a net loss of Yuan7.2bn ($1.1bn) for the first six months of 2016, reversing the Yuan2bn net profit seen during the same period last year as excess capacity dragged down cargo rates. China COSCO is part of China Cosco Shipping Corporation (COSCOCS), a shipping giant created earlier this year from the state-driven merger of former rivals China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and China Shipping Group. China COSCO said in a statement that global container shipping market has been sluggish since the second half of 2015, with freight rates at record lows. While revenues rose by 2.6 per cent to Yuan29.63bn for the six months ended June, costs rose by more than 16 per cent to Yuan31.13bn.

China COSCO Holdings Co Ltd fell to a first-half loss hurt by a persistent slump in the global container market, the world's fourth largest container shipper said on Thursday. COSCO Shipping reported a first-half loss of 7.2 billion yuan ($1.08 billion yuan) versus a profit of 1.9 billion a year earlier, the company said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. COSCO is grappling with weak global demand that has dragged down the sector. In the first quarter, it reported a net loss of 4.5 billion yuan. China COSCO is part of China Cosco Shipping Corporation (COSCOCS), a shipping giant created earlier this year from the state-driven merger of former rivals China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and China Shipping Group.

Denmark's Maersk Line is fighting to remain the world's no.1 container shipping carrier as a wave of mergers and acquisitions, particularly in Asia, creates new challengers trying to grab a bigger share of a depressed market. Maersk itself hasn't made a major acquisition for more than a decade but says it might be open to "the right opportunity", although doubters believe such deals risk accumulating ships without securing enough customers. A unit of oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk , the line has a 15 percent share of the overall container market.

China COSCO Shipping Co. Ltd (China COSCO Shipping) officially  inaugurated the company “COSCO shipping Financial Holdings Limited (COSCO shipping Financial) in Hong Kong. It was former China Shipping (Hong Kong) Holdings, reports Sinocast. The formation of Cosco Shipping Financial followed the completion of the merger between China Cosco Group and China Shipping Group in February this year to become Coscocs. COSCO Shipping Financial Holdings, together with China Shipping Container Lines, will form a financial holding platform of China COSCO Shipping Corporation. Its businesses include ship leasing, container leasing and manufacturing, non-shipping business, equity investment, internal financial services, banking equities and insurance business.

France's CMA CGM and China's COSCO Container Lines are to form a four-way vessel-sharing alliance with Evergreen Line and Orient Overseas Container Line focused on Asia routes, CMA CGM said on Wednesday. Container shipping has seen route-sharing develop in response to a severe downturn in the market, and a rejigging of alliances had been expected in recent months after COSCO merged with China Shipping Group and CMA CGM agreed to acquire Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL).

According to WSJ report, deals involving Cosco, China Shipping, CMA CGM and Neptune Orient Lines to bring major changes in global shipping alliances. China Cosco Shipping and CMA CGM are hoping to form a new alliance with OOCL, Evergreen Line, and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, according to sources in the Chinese shipping industry. According to the Alphaliner, CMA CGM and Cosco are leading efforts to create a new vessel-sharing alliance that could include Evergreen Line and OOCL and would shake up three of the four major east-west carrier groupings. CMA CGM’s plans to bring APL into the O3 Alliance once the NOL acquisition is done has put the spotlight on the G6 Alliance.

China COSCO Shipping, the result of a merger in February between the country's top two state-owned shippers, is in talks with CMA CGM and several other major operators to create a new shipping alliance, say reports in local media. Wang Haimin, China Cosco’s deputy general manager reportedly said: “We are having further discussions with some related carriers. He did not specify which carriers were involved, only noting that the new partnership was expected to serve China Cosco’s strategy to be “truly globalised” by expanding its fleet presence beyond current East-West trades to South-North and non-China related lanes. Meanwhile, Nikkei reports that China COSCO is rushing to streamline operations in line with President Xi Jinping's plan to build a new maritime economic corridor.

China Shipping Development Company Limited (CSDC) achieved 34.95% higher profit for 2015 totaling in RMB417 million ($64.3 million) when compared to figures from 2014, mostly due to a very strong tanker market. The revenue was stable at RMB12.21bn in 2015 compared to RMB12.27bn in 2014 for CSDC, the tanker and bulker unit of China Shipping Group. “In 2015, the oil shipping market was better than in 2014 in general. Affected by beneficial afactors such as the higher shipping prices, significant decrease in fuel prices and gradual realisation of results from various innovative measures of the company, oil shipping business obtained a good result,” CSDC stated. The Shanghai-and Hong Kong-listed company added that lower fuel cost was the “highlight” of its cost controlling efforts.

China Cosco Shipping plans to retain its current container alliances until they expire, after which it plans to sign a new deal, it said on Monday. The group's spokesman, Yu Zenggang, did not say when the current alliance agreements were due to expire. China COSCO , a unit of COSCO, is part of the CKYHE alliance with Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Yang Ming Marine Transport, Hanjin Shipping and Evergreen Marine, while China Shipping Container Lines , a unit of China Shipping Group, CMA CGM CMACG.UL and United Arab Shipping Co make up the Ocean Three alliance.

China COSCO Shipping Corporation and Vale have signed a 27-year-long agreement that will see the Chinese shipping giant carry 16 million tonnes of iron ore per year for the Brazilian miner. The agreement was signed between the two companies at a ceremony in Beijing on Friday, the Chinese company said in a statement. "The signing of the agreement marks the commencement of a new chapter of the cooperation between the two companies," it said. China COSCO Shipping Corporation was launched last month following the merger of former rivals China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and China Shipping Group. COSCO previously had a long-term shipping deal with Vale. Reporting by Brenda Goh

Off the coast of a nearly deserted island below the southern tip of Hong Kong, at least 10 massive ships that normally carry hundreds of thousands of tons of coal or iron ore lie idle near one of the world's busiest sea routes. These empty vessels paint a grim picture for the dry bulk shipping business that veterans of the industry say is grappling with an unprecedented crisis of too many ships and not enough cargoes. The hollow boats underscore the global economic doldrums that policymakers are struggling to overcome. "This is the worst we have seen in recent times. We have been hit by a perfect storm - huge order books, China slowdown…

China's biggest shipping line China Ocean Shipping Corporation (Coscocs) has revealed an ambitious plan to increase its container shipping capacity to hit a 2 million TEUs over the next three years, says China Daily. The company is raising the operational capacity in an effort to seize a larger slice of the cake, known as the East-West and South-North routes. Wan Min, general manager of China COSCO Shipping, said Chinese shipping companies mainly operate container shipping services on Asia-Africa and China-Southeast shipping lines, the competition will therefore focus on major shipping lines in particular Asia-Europe and Asia-America routes.

CMA CGM Vice-Chairman Rodolphe Saadé confirmed talks between the French container shipping line and potential partners regarding the future of its alliances, says WSJ. "We are discussing with the new China Shipping Group, but we also discuss with others," he says. Saadé did not give any specifics of the firm’s talks. But as reported by MarineLink (See CMA CGM - COSCO Mega Alliance to Shake-up the Industry?) quoting Alphaliner, CMA CGM was discussing a mega-alliance with the newly merged Chinese line COSCOCS, Taiwan's Evergreen and Hong Kong-based OOCL. Its current O3 alliance – with UASC and CSCL – dissolves at the end of 2016. The proposal would hurt the prospects of some existing alliances by taking away financially stronger members.

Several of the world’s top container lines are entering in different vessel-sharing alliances following the current wave of mergers and acquisitions among carriers, reports China Daily. There has been reports that had shocked the containership transport industry - the possible mega-alliance between French liner CMA CGM and China Cosco Shipping (COSCOCS), the recently merged China’s biggest shipping line. Formed by Denmark's Maersk Line and Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Co SA, the 2M operates more than 2.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (or TEUs, the industry measurements of capacity of container ships and terminals), and owns 193 vessels.

French-based CMA CGM, the world's third-largest container shipping firm, said on Monday it expects its volume growth to outperform the market again in 2016 after strong expansion last year helped it cushion a slide in freight rates. CMA CGM, which is in the process of acquiring Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) for $2.4 billion in its biggest-ever deal, has been pursuing economies of scale to ride out a shipping downturn linked to vessel oversupply and faltering economic growth.