COSCO: CHINESE LINES NEED TO CHANGE STRATEGIES

COSCO: CHINESE LINES NEED TO CHANGE STRATEGIES    Chinese shipping lines will need to adjust to market changes as China prepares to enter the World Trade Organization, said Gao Weijie, executive vice president of the China Ocean Shipping Co. group.
   Speaking at a conference in London, Gao said that Chinese container exports and imports are already increasing by about 30 percent a year, and will be given an extra boost by the forthcoming WTO accession of China.
   “There will be more competitors trying to get a larger share of the cake,” he said. Already, all major shipping lines connect their trunk liner services to China.
   Gao said that Chinese ports handled a record 19 million TEUs last year, a 38-percent increase over 1998.
   WTO accession will bring down barriers on exports from China and trigger a surge of imports, he predicted.
   Gao said that China has increasingly opened its shipping market to non-Chinese carriers. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Foreign Trade issued regulations on the establishment of wholly owned foreign companies.
   “The Chinese liner companies will have to learn how to adjust themselves to the changes,” he said. Among the changes required, Gao listed teaming with customers, satisfying customers, providing “package solutions” in supply chain management, stabilizing the market through cooperation with other carriers, and thinking globally.
   Gao predicted that carriers serving China would also move towards fewer feeder ports, using either Shanghai or the South China ports of Shenzhen.
   Gao rejected criticisms that China is still heavily regulated and discriminates against non-Chinese carriers. “Some people argue that China is trying to reverse the wheel of deregulation,” he said. “But, in my view, deregulation does not mean no regulation.”