Busy ports linking China and the rest of the world are now targets of a Chinese government consolidation campaign that previously spurred high-profile mergers among state-owned shipping and logistics companies. By consolidating port operations according to administrative regions such as provinces, Beijing hopes to reduce competition and promote economies of scale, according to Caixin. Officials also expect consolidated ports to be managed more efficiently. The campaign, which mirrors a state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform movement underway since 2015, has gained momentum since August, when 18 provincial-level regions with sea and-or river ports were ordered to ramp up consolidations. SOE reform led to the 2015 merger of state-owned container shipping companies that created today’s China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co., or COSCO. The Ministry of Transportation’s port streamlining order called on provincial-level authorities to learn from the success of Zhejiang province, where all area ports were merged in 2015 and now operate under a single platform.
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