Shipping

New giant shipping company from China

Two heavily indebted state shipping companies close to a new industry giants. The company hopes, in the highly competitive Container business a better chance to have.

In the crisis, the size help. In the midst of the global economic downturn, with schwächelndem growth in China and massive Overcapacity in the international shipping, is in Shanghai a new shipowner giant has been launched. The China Cosco Shipping Corporation (Coscocs) was formed by the merger of two state-owned companies.

180,000 employees, the new number four in the global container shipping and thus twice as many as the market leader Maersk from Denmark. The fleet of the New: 830 ships. Maersk and the Japanese rival Mitsui bring it together, not even at the half.

In the port of Shanghai

Last December, the government in Beijing is the Fusion of the Staatsreedereien Cosco and China Shipping Group to be approved. Both partners are deeply in debt, and both have in the last period of high losses brought in. Nevertheless, the new group a stock market value of nearly 22 billion dollars -Maersk brings it to 12 billion.

Mergers worldwide

The crisis of the global transport sector is also driving competition to mergers. The French group CMA has recently competitors NOL from Singapore. Large parts of the Chilean shipowner CSAV were of Hapag Lloyd, Hamburg swallowed. The whole of the German industry is still on approximately 3,000 ships and 86.000 Employees.

For years, fall in the container business, the prices. By size of businesses want to reduce costs. Therefore, to grow not only the corporations but also the ships. You can always use more containers to grasp. But it will be even harder, fully loaded on the trip to send. Often make owners with tours of losses.

Ship, Port, Rail

The industry specialized consulting company Drewry estimates that the worldwide Container shipping in this years total a Minus of five billion dollars retract.

Ship of the Branchenersten Maersk

Nevertheless, the Reedergruppe Cosco, which is part of the new Schifffahrtsriesen, recently the port of Piraeus in Greece assumed, at a purchase price of about € 360 million. Here are the debt Coscos seven Times as high as those of the port.

The Chinese want apparently new business opportunities open up. This week it was announced that Cosco also plan the Acquisition of the Greek railway network. Observers pointed out that the group had then about Connections from the Suez canal over the Balkan States to Central and Eastern Europe.

For the Containermarkt expect the experts from Drewry over the longer term, with falling freight rates. Due to the weakening economy in China and other large emerging economies, will the offer continue to be much larger than the demand.

ar/bea (rtr, afp, archive)