Shanghai Hai Hua Shipping Company (HASCO) has become a fully owned unit of Shanghai Jinjiang Shipping Group (SJS), after their parent, Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), engineered a merger to consolidate the two Chinese domestic liner operators.
HASCO was established in 1990, originally as a state-owned enterprise through the Ministry of Communications (precursor of the Ministry of Transport), which sold its holdings to SIPG, another state-owned company, in 2000. SIPG controls the majority of the container handling capacity in Shanghai port.
HASCO operates liner services connecting Shanghai and Qingdao with Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Chinese domestic services.
Established in 1983 SJS was owned by Shanghai International Group Co., Shanghai Jiushi Corporation, China Shanghai Shipping (Group) Company, Sinotrans Shanghai (Group) Co. In 2015, SIPG took a majority stake in SJS, and fully acquired the company in November 2018.
Originally, SJS operated liner services between Shanghai, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, until late 2009, when management decided to focus on the Japan and Taiwan markets.
The SJS-HASCO union is part of the Chinese government’s move to streamline state-owned enterprises, and this has seen China COSCO Shipping Corporation acquiring China Shipping Group and China Merchants Group taking over Sinotrans & CSC, among other mergers in the Chinese maritime sphere.
The combined fleet capacity of SJS stands at 35 containerships (30 owned vessels and five chartered vessels) aggregating 29,828TEU, ranking the enlarged SJJ at 39th among liner operators.
At the time of the merger, SJJ’s fleet stood at 17 vessels with a combined capacity of 17,527TEU. HASCO’s fleet came up to 18 ships of total capacity of 12,301TEU.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
