COSCO AND CHINA SHIPPING GROUP TO COOPERATE

COSCO AND CHINA SHIPPING GROUP TO COOPERATE    China Ocean Shipping Co. has announced plans to cooperate with fellow Chinese mainland operator China Shipping Group.
   Following a meeting in Shanghai on Friday (March 3) between Wei Jiafu, president of COSCO, and Li Kelin, president of China Shipping Group, a spokesman for COSCO said that “both sides agreed that they should strengthen their cooperation in a wide sphere.”
   The spokesman did not say in which shipping sector the two maritime giants would cooperate.
   COSCO operates a vast fleet of about 600 vessels of all types, representing about 16 million deadweight tons. China Shipping Group has a fleet of some 400 ships, mainly bulk carriers and tankers, with an aggregate deadweight of 9 million tons. China Shipping Group, which burst into the container shipping business last year, said that it wants to become one of the world’s top 10 container shipping companies.
   At present, COSCO and China Shipping Group operate separate services in all their deepsea container trades, but each has moved towards slot-exchange and vessel-sharing cooperative agreements with other carriers.
   Li Kelin, president of China Shipping Group, is a former senior executive of COSCO and both shipping groups are owned by the Chinese government.