The new shipping giant will have the world's largest total shipping capacity and the fourth biggest container fleet; it will have 610 bln yuan (93.6 bln dollars) in assets, Xinhua reported.
China Shipping head Xu Lirong will be at the helm of the new company, which is headquartered in the city of Shanghai.
The merger of COSCO and China Shipping creates world's largest shipping company by ship value pic.twitter.com/mFkO2Jukyh
— Olaf Merk (@o_merk) 18 февраля 2016
Xinhua quoted Xu as saying that China COSCO Shipping Corporation aims to be the global leader in shipping, integrated logistics and related financial services.
Xu described the merger as something that will add to China's clout in the global container shipping market, where three Western companies currently control 40 percent of global capacity despite Asia accounting for 70 percent of the world's container freight volume, Xinhua reported.
Will this be the future livery of merged COSCO and China Shipping, to be known as China COSCO Shpg Corp #COSCOCS pic.twitter.com/RALkE9Rl1r
— Krispen Atkinson (@Krispen_Ships) 18 февраля 2016
The restructuring of China COSCO and China Shipping was approved by the country's State Council in December 2015.
It became the largest merger in the history of China's capital market, with 74 asset transactions worth 60 bln yuan (about 9.3 bln dollars).
The past several months have seen the amalgamation of two high-speed rail makers and two leading nuclear power companies in the country.
Right now, there are 110 state conglomerates administered by China's State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, China's Cabinet. Earlier, the authorities announced a pilot program to modernize the state-owned corporations, improve asset management and encourage the creation of mixed ownership.
