Native name 中国远洋海运集团有限公司 Area served Worldwide | Type State-owned enterprise Founded 2016 | |
Industry Marine transportation
Container shipping
Naval architecture
Financial services
Real estate development Headquarters Shanghai, People's Republic of China Key people Xu Lirong (Chairman)
Wan Min (President) Parent organization China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company Subsidiaries China International Marine Containers Predecessors China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, China Shipping Group | ||
China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, also referred to as the China COSCO Shipping Group or China COSCO Shipping, is a Chinese business conglomerate and state-owned enterprise headquartered in Shanghai. The group is engaged in a variety of business sectors, with a focus on integrated logistics, shipping, finance services, and equipment manufacturing. The company was formed by the merger of the COSCO Group and the China Shipping Group in January 2016. The merger was precipitated by an ongoing downturn in the containerized-ocean-freight and break bulk shipping industries that stymied the profits of both groups and motivated them to unite and endure the decline together. The merged entity is composed of several business clusters each of which is managed by one or more subsidiaries. Its core business cluster is container, dry-bulk, and oil shipping services.
Contents
- History
- COSCO Group
- China Shipping Group
- Logistics Industrial Business Cluster
- Shipping Finance Industrial Cluster
- Shipping Services Industrial Cluster
- Socialized Industrial Cluster
- Internet Business Cluster
- Subsidiaries and divisions
- References
As of 2016, the group's total fleet size ranks first globally, comprising 1114 merchant vessels and a total capacity of 85.32 million DWT. The dry-bulk shipping division ranks first globally, self-owning 365 vessels with a total capacity of 33.52 million DWT. The container shipping division has a capacity of 1.58 million TEU, making it fourth in the world. Moreover, China COSCO Shipping's container line, COSCO Container Lines, aims to expand its fleet size to over 2 million TEU by 2018, which would make it the third-largest container line in terms of total capacity.
China COSCO Shipping's inaugural vessel, COSCO Shipping Panama, was selected to be the first vessel to sail through the newly improved Panama Canal on 26 June 2016.
History
On January 2016, the Chinese State Council approved the merger of COSCO Group and China Shipping Group, effectively forming China COSCO Shipping.
An ongoing downturn in the ship transport industry which began in 2013 and that was caused by a multitude of factors such as weak global GDP, sluggish trade, vessel overcapacity, bloated retail inventories, and reduced demand for container shipping, eroded container lines' profits and triggered a wave of mergers and acquisitions. The overlapping businesses of both COSCO and China Shipping naturally fostered degrading competition between the two groups, and with the effect created by unfavorable market conditions, both companies were left anemic. Thus, it was a logical decision for the two groups to consolidate and endure the downturn as a unified entity. Furthermore, the Chinese Governments' reorganization of the obsolete structural format of its state-owned enterprise system is also attributable to this and other Chinese mergers.
The somewhat complex merging process and transitional phase has frustrated many customers, resulting in a temporary dent in profits.
COSCO Group
The COSCO Group, founded in 1961 and headquartered in Beijing, was a Chinese state-owned business conglomerate providing logistics and shipping services around the world. The company owned over 300 total subsidiaries in China and abroad. Furthermore, the group's brand was among China's top 15 in 2012. The company was the largest dry bulk carrier in China and among the largest in the world. Its container line, named COSCO Container Lines, was the world's sixth-largest container shipping company in terms of fleet capacity. It owned more than 130 merchant vessels with a total capacity of 600,000 TEU. The company employed 130,000 people worldwide as of 2012.
China Shipping Group
The China Shipping Group was founded in 1997 and was headquartered in Shanghai. The group was also a state-owned business conglomerate supplying various transportation and shipping-related services. Its flagship brand and subsidiary, named China Shipping Container Lines, was the world's seventh-largest container shipping company based on fleet capacity.