Trump Spat Delaying COSCO Takeover?

Recent suggestions have indicated that the current spat between Donald Trump and China may be having an affect on COSCO Shipping’s takeover of fellow steamship line – OOCL.

The Chinese state-owned shipping line had moved closer to incorporating the publicly-owned Hong Kong carrier, with COSCO’s vice president – Huang Xiaowen – recently announcing that the deal would be completed by the end of June.

However, recent articles in The Loadstar, amongst others, suggest that the deal is currently under scrutiny as a perceived US security threat – specifically OOCL’s ownership of a number of US port container terminals. It was also considered that the recent tit-for-tat trade exchanges between Trump and China may complicate the issue further.

The takeover, which the EU approved in December, is expected to make COSCO the world’s third largest container shipping line, behind Maersk and MSC. COSCO current holds approximately 9% of the market, and retaining all of OOCL’s 3% after the merge would allow them to leapfrog CMA CGM.

Both COSCO and OOCL share slots in the Ocean Alliance, which is one of the three major alliances that are also marketed by UniOcean Lines, your privately owned UK representative in the ever-shrinking list of carriers.

UniOcean Lines released our full 19 loop Asian schedule this week, which is the largest offering of services available and can be found on this website.