According to MANA, China’s two biggest state-owned shipping companies plan to merge 11 shipbuilding yards into a single entity in one of the industry’s biggest consolidation moves yet, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The two companies had already combined their fleets and port operations last year to create China COSCO Holdings, the world’s fourth biggest container operator in terms of capacity.
Cosco owns six yards and China Shipping Group owns five. Cosco also operates two joint-venture yards with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.
The two companies have a combined workforce of more than 25,000