China Shipping Group Co News

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.

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 Corp Ltd  (COSCOCS), a new company formed by the restructuring of China's top two shipping firms, was officially established on Thursday (February 18). The Chairman Xu Lirong said his company,now the world's largest bulk vessel and oil tanker operator by fleet size,  is planning to deploy more resources to six new businesses. According to a report in China Daily, the shipping major will focus on logistics, industrial equipment manufacturing, financial and shipping services, investment, and operations linked to the country's "Internet Plus" development program. "New businesses such as multimodal transportation, warehouse network development…

The last five days stuck in Elbschlick 400-meter (1,312 feet) CSCL Indian Ocean, the 19,000 teu vessel aground on the river Elbe, owned by China Shipping Group Co.,  is available again. After several failed attempts to budge the containership salvage teams were preparing to refloat the vessel during a spring tide on Tuesday. The attempt to tow the vessel was scheduled for 2 a.m. Tuesday morning when high water is expected to be 1.2 meters above the average high tide due to a spring tide. As planned, the towing test began around 2:00 PM. The south wind over the North Sea and the spring tide of the new moon the flood was just over 1.20 meters higher than normal. The portion of the same was closed for the duration of the maneuver.

The current chairman of China Shipping Group (CSG)  Xu Lirong handed top job at $74.7bn Beijing-backed merged entity of CSG and China Cosco Group. Xu Lirong has been appointed chairman of China Cosco Shipping Group, according to statements posted by the two groups on their websites Monday. Xu is a shipping veteran and served in senior positions at Cosco for more than 30 years before joining China Shipping (Group) as president in 2011. He was promoted to chairman in 2013. Xu' counterpart at Cosco, Ma Zehua, hits retirement age later this year and is expected to step down. Cosco Group Executive Vice President Wan Min will become president of China Cosco Shipping Group. China's State Council approved the establishment of China Cosco Shipping Group Ltd.

China Ocean Shipping Group Co (COSCO) and China Shipping Group Co will become a new entity after merging, led by the latter's current chairman, China's state-owned assets regulator said on Monday. The former rivals said in December they would merge through a series of asset swaps, creating units focused on distinct business areas such as container shipping and vessel leasing. Together, COSCO and China Shipping control 488 billion yuan ($74.7 billion) worth of assets, Barclays analysts estimated. After the merger, the resulting, newly established company will be chaired by Xu Lirong, the State-Owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission said on its official microblog. The merger comes as the government moves to consolidate state-owned industries.

China's cabinet on Tuesday (Dec 29) approved a deal that fuses two of the country's biggest state-owned transport and logistics firms, reports Reuters. China's cabinet has approved China Merchants Group's acquisition of Sinotrans & CSC Holdings Co, the state asset regulator said on Tuesday. Previously directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), Sinotrans & CSC Holdings is the biggest integrated logistics service provider with total asset of well over 100 billion yuan (16 billion U.S. dollars). Based in Hong Kong, China Merchants Group is a state-owned conglomerate with businesses in transportation, finance and real estate. By the end of 2014, its total asset stood at 624 billion (US$96 billion) yuan.

Shares of Cosco Group and China Shipping have taken a hammering on the stock markets  as two major companies lost about $900 million in total market value after the government proposed combining its two key ocean liner groups, reports Bloomberg. China’s shipping giants led the declines with drops of as much as 30 percent, the most on an intraday basis in more than 10 years. The shares had been halted from trading since August pending an announcement by their parent companies. Cosco  shares have been suspended from trading since August 11, after it was reported that its majority shareholder Cosco Group is eyeing a privatisation exercise for the struggling shipping company.

Container shippers of the G6 alliance intend to maintain current service structure and operate as aligned through 2016, following news of CMA-CGM’s potential takeover of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) announced earlier this week. Singapore-based NOL, parent company G6 member APL, said it will continue to operate as normal as its acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals expected in the later part of next year. Other G6 Alliance members include Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL).

China's State Council has approved a merger of the country's two biggest shipping conglomerates, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) and China Shipping Group Co, the state asset supervisor said on its website on Friday. The combined entity would become the world's fourth-largest container shipper with a roughly 8.1 percent market share. That would be far behind AP Moeller - Maersk A/S, Mediterranean Shipping Co SA and CMA CGM SA. Premier Li Keqiang last week said the government would spend the next two years eliminating overcapacity, with long-term money-losing companies going "under the knife." Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk

China State Council has given the go-ahead for country's two largest shipping conglomerates to merge, continuing a trend in the industry to trim down state-owned enterprises, reports Caixin Media. The China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO Group) and China Shipping Group Co. have been working on a deal since August. The listed subsidiaries of the two firms are expected to make separate statements on their next step on December 11, the executive said. Meanwhile, WSJ reported that the shipping companies plan to issue details of their long-expected  multibillion-dollar merger plans as early as Friday, quoting people with knowledge of the matter.

The global shipping industry consolidation appears to be picking up, with much of the activity centering on Asia, reports Nikkei. The overcapacity and weaker global trade have fueled talk of a shakeout in the industry. CMA CGM is in “exclusive” talks with Neptune Orient Lines’ (NOL) largest shareholder, Temask, for the purchase of its APL container liner business. Over in China, the top two state-owned operators are in the final stages of merger talks. NOL announced that CMA CGM had been granted exclusive negotiating rights, through Dec. 7. Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, which owns 68% of the shipping company, has been seeking a buyer since early summer. The French suitor beat Denmark-headquartered A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world leader, for pole position.

China has released its first "white list" of 51 shipyards that it deems worthy of favourable policy support, as the world's largest shipbuilder strives to tackle over-capacity that has slammed the global shipping market. The government said last year that shipbuilders that complied with its requirements in areas like ship emissions would be put on a white list for favourable policy support, such as export tax rebates and bank credit. The list published on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's website on Wednesday included the Jiangsu shipyard of heavily indebted China Rongsheng, Singapore-listed Yangzijiang's New Yangzi shipyard and two of Sinopacific Shipbuilding yards.

Container ship operators China Shipping Group Co, seek to invest in other areas Bloomberg reports China's second-largest container line, is looking for acquisitions in areas including shipbuilding and port operations as the industry struggles with overcapacity and slowing economic growth, said Group Chairman Li Shaode at a Beijing government meeting.

China Shipping Development Co. Ltd. has entered into a series of ship chartering agreements worth $12.2 million with associates of its parent company China Shipping (Group) Co. On May 26, China Shipping Development entered into a bareboat charter agreement with Shanghai Shipping Industrial Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of China Shipping (Group), which agreed to lease to the company three oil tankers for one year, the company said. It also entered into a charter agreement with China Shipping (Hong Kong) Marine Co. Ltd., also a wholly owned subsidiary of its China Shipping (Group), to charter six dry bulk cargo vessels to China Shipping Marine for one year. The company also entered into a charter agreement with China Shipping Container Lines Co.

China Shipping Development Ltd said it will pay more than $800m for 10 dry bulk carriers and four very large ore carriers. It said the dry bulk carriers were ordered from subsidiaries of its parent, China Shipping (Group) Co. Six carriers of 57,300 dead weight tons and four of 57,000 DWT will be delivered by June 2012 at the latest, the company said. They will be used to transport coal and other bulk cargo. The purchase is subject to approval by independent shareholders of China Shipping Development at an extraordinary general meeting. Meanwhile, the company said its wholly-owned China Shipping Development (HK) Marine Co Ltd will pay $467.2m for four very large ore carriers (VLOC), an order which it announced in October .

Hong Kong-listed China Shipping Development Co. agreed to buy eight oil tankers for $556m from two Chinese shipbuilders. According to Yahoo! News, China Shipping Development, a unit of state-owned China Shipping (Group) Co., said it would buy four oil tankers for $408m from Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Ltd. It said the four vessels would enter operations between June and December 2009. China Shipping Development also said it would buy four oil tankers for $148m from Guangzhou Shipyard International Ltd. The first of these vessels will enter operations October 2007, while the last would be delivered in November 2009.The company said it would finance the purchases through bank borrowing and internal resources. (Source: Yahoo! News)