COSCO EXECUTIVE CALLS FOR INDUSTRY STABILITY

   A senior China Ocean Shipping Co. executive has called for stability in
liner shipping and the end of price wars.
   Gao Weijie, vice president of the COSCO group, outlined proposals to
stabilize the shipping market to a meeting of Hong Kong shipowners.
   Gao said that all carriers in international trade — conference and
non-conference — should be active "in the discussions and negotiations
aiming at (the) stabilization of international shipping" in order to
achieve "lasting and healthy development."
   COSCO Container Lines, the liner arm of the COSCO group is a
non-conference carrier but belongs to several discussion agreements and the
Box Club of shipping line chief executive officers.
   Gao added that fair competition is about competing on service standards
and management "instead of fighting in the rates of freight as such."
   He criticized the "undesirable plummeting of freight rates, mistrust and
a chaotic freight market which benefit nobody."
   Jin Zhongming, the managing director of COSCO Container Lines, made
similar proposals two years ago.