COSCO Holdings president resigns

Jiang Lijun, executive director and president of COSCO parent China COSCO Holdings Company Limited, will be replaced by Deputy General Manager Xu Zunwu.    The executive director and president of China COSCO Holdings Company Limited, parent of the ocean carrier COSCO Container Lines and port terminal operator COSCO Pacific, has resigned effective today.
   Jiang Lijun stepped down after four years in the post because he has reached retirement age, the company said in a statement. He will also no longer be a member of the strategy and development committee and nomination committee of the company.
   Lijun will be replaced by Deputy General Manager Xu Zunwu, who has also overseen COSCO’s dry bulk shipping businesses, subject to the approval of company shareholders at their next general meeting.
   COSCO confirmed a widely-rumored merger between it and fellow state-owned container carrier China Shipping during meetings with U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner William P. Doyle in November. The two companies suspended trading of their stocks Aug. 10, but said little about their plans until Doyle said the companies told him during a visit to Shanghai they “are in the beginning stages of a merger.”