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Australia welcomes new shipping line

Australia has a new shipping line. Great Southern Shipping Australia (GSS) and China’s Rizhao Port Group are joining forces and will buy five containerships, to be flagged with the Australian International Shipping Register (AISR), to focus on Australia’s coastal trades and voyages to Rizhao in northern China’s Shandong province. The joint venture has plans to grow the fleet to 10 ships and to move the weekly service to twice a week as business picks up.

The ceo of Great Southern Shipping, Paull Van Oost, commented today: “Today celebrates the bringing together of two great nations, in China and Australia, in cooperation in trade and shipping, marking a very significant milestone for Australia’s maritime industry.

“Today is a day that we – both Chinese and Australians alike – should be very proud of. We have demonstrated what can be done by collaboration, through understanding each other’s needs and by cooperating to ensure a win-win outcome for China, Australia, Australian importers, exporters and coastal traders.”

Van Oost also discussed the importance of maintaining an Australian merchant fleet. “We are an island nation reliant on the sea and shipping for trade,” he said. “Given the distances between major cities in the east and west of Australia, as our nation grows, we are very much becoming dependent on the sea for interstate trade. The demise of Australia’s merchant fleet cannot and must not continue. Today we reverse the past trends and we see through cooperation and friendship, a rebirth of Australian merchant fleet.”

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

Comments

  1. Interesting to note that Paull van Oost’s name isn’t listed on Great Southern Shipping’s website or Executive Management team. With the failure of Pan Australia Shipping in 2006 and Agility Shipping in 2011 under his stewardship, it’s incredible that Investors have again entrusted him with a start-up capital.

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