Shanghai Ming Wah Shipping (SMWS), a Chinese state-owned shipping business that has been largely active in the dry bulk, chemical tanker and general cargo segments, has moved into the container segment.
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]Its subsidiary, Yangtze Navigation, has purchased a 5,300 TEU newbuilding, Yangtze Shanghai, from Zhoushan Changhong Shipbuilding. The vessel has since been chartered to CMA CGM, which has deployed the ship to its Africa service.
Yangtze Shanghai was one of eight vessels that Zodiac Maritime originally commissioned at Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding in 2015 and was transferred to Zhoushan Changhong when the former shipyard went bankrupt in 2018.
Formerly called Shanghai Changhang Shipping, SMWS is fully owned by China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES). The company is an offshoot of the Chinese state-owned China Changjiang National Shipping (Group) Corporation (CSC), which started out in China’s domestic river shipping sector more than a century ago.
Following the global financial crisis in 2008, CSC merged with another Chinese state-owned shipping group, Sinotrans, to form Sinotrans & CSC.
However, by 2013, Sinotrans & CSC was facing financial pressure as it had ordered newbuildings at the height of the last market peak, only to take delivery of the ships amid a weak freight environment. In 2016, SMWS fell behind on its ship lease payments to China Minsheng Bank, causing the latter to convert the company’s debt to equity of around 47%, with Sinotrans & CSC retaining the other 53%.
Eventually, in 2017, CMES, which is also state controlled, acquired Sinotrans & CSC, as the Chinese government sought to streamline the operations of state-owned shipping enterprises. This arrangement resulted in China Minsheng Bank transferring its interest in SMWS to Sinotrans & CSC thereafter. In February 2018, CMES also took over SMWS.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent[/s2If]
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