China Cosco Shipping Corporation (COSCOCS) has officially launched its container shipping subsidiary, China Lines, following the merger of Cosco Container Lines and China Shipping Container Lines.
Meanwhile, the listed subsidiaries of Cosco and China Shipping have all announced that the merger between China’s two largest shipping groups has been approved by the state council.
After the merger, China Lines will become the world’s fourth largest container operator in terms of capacity.
According to Xu Lirong, president of COSCOCS, the restructuring of the group’s container business will be finalised this month and the restructuring of its oil shipping business and bulk shipping business will be completed in April and May respectively.
An official at COSCOCS told Splash that China Lines will start official operations in the second half of this year, and will restructure its domestic shipping network in the major coastal ports including Shanghai, Ningbo, Tianjin, Qingdao, Dalian, Xiamen, and the group will not make any changes on its international shipping network before 2017.
