COSCO AND MALAYSIAN LINE JOIN CARGOSMART PORTAL

COSCO AND MALAYSIAN LINE JOIN CARGOSMART PORTAL    China Ocean Shipping Co. and Malaysia International Shipping Corp. have joined CargoSmart, the Internet shipping portal launched by Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line last October.
   Both Asian carriers have joined the container shipping portal as users, but have declined CargoSmart’s offer to invest in the venture as shareholders.
   The addition of COSCO and Malaysia International Shipping Corp. will bring to three the number of shipping lines that do business via the CargoSmart portal.
   But CargoSmart, 100-percent owned by OOCL, has been unsuccessful so far in attracting new shareholders. CargoSmart aims to operate independently from the Hong Kong-based shipping line.
   In May, CargoSmart said that it had asked five other shipping lines to decide, by June 30, about each taking equity shares in the portal of up to 20 percent.
   “At this point, there is no new shareholder,” said Oliver To, spokesman for OOCL in Hong Kong.
   CargoSmart competes against the multi-carrier shipping portal INTTRA, owned by    six European-based shipping groups, and the GT Nexus portal backed by 12 shipping lines based in Asia, the Mideast, Europe and the Americas.