The Chinese government gave nearly US$300m in subsidies to four Chinese container-shipping lines yesterday (30 September), as part of its six-year plan to update the country’s sea-freight industry, reports www.joc.com.
China Cosco, Cosco Shipping, China Shipping Development Companies and China Shipping Container Lines all received a share of the 1.8bn yuan (US$293.3m) fund from the Chinese government, the report said.
China Cosco announced it had received the lion's share of the investment (1.3bn yuan, US$210m), through its controlling shareholder, the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Group.
China Cosco earlier this month announced it would spend US$618m on five new 14,500-TEU ships, all of which will be build in Chinese shipyards. The company also has five 9,400-TEU ships on order at a cost of about US$90m each.
Sister company Cosco Shipping confirmed it was given 182.9m yuan (US$29.8m) from the subsidy roll-out, while China Shipping Development Co was handed 215m yuan (US$35m) in incentives from the finance ministry that will be used to scrap 15 ships. CSCL announced its subsidy totaled 40m yuan (US$6.5m).
The money will largely be spent on ship scrapping, but is also earmarked for the building of new, more environmentally-friendly vessels and various other ship upgrades, www.joc.com said. Giving money to the lines will also have a ripple effect, helping shipbuilders who have been impacted by a slowdown in orders.
The Chinese government announced a plan to revitalise the industry on September 3, which reportedly involved tax and regulatory reforms that would modernise and upgrade carrier fleets. The plan runs through 2020.
Though the majority of the regulations are aimed at shipping lines, an emphasis was also put on developing the ports of Shanghai and Dalian to compete with other global ports that offer more services, said the report.
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