Two of China’s major shipping companies could merge 11 shipbuilding yards into a single entity, The Wall Street Journal cited sources close to the matter.
China Ocean Shipping Co. (Cosco) and China Shipping Group Co. would reportedly reveal their plans of the merger by early next year.
China Ocean Shipping owns six yards and operates two joint-venture yards with Japanese Kawasaki Heavy Industries, while its compatriot China Shipping Group owns five.
If the companies go through with the alleged merger, they would create China’s third biggest shipbuilding group.
The move would follow the companies’ earlier cooperation when they combined their fleets and port operations to form China Cosco Holdings.
Created last year, the company is said to be the world’s fourth biggest container operator in terms of capacity.
Clarkson Research earlier said that, following a rapid increase in number of active Chinese yards from 2005 to 2009, the number of active Chinese yards declined by 63%.
At the start of September 2016, there were just 140 active Chinese yards or around 35% of all active yards globally.
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