China Continues Consolidation of Maritime Assets

China is restructuring two state run ports as it merges Ningbo Port Co. and Zhoushan Port. The new company will be renamed Ningbo-Zhoushan Port Co., and will now have a combined throughput of about 873 million tons and will merge into one of the busiest ports in the world in terms of tonnage.

Ownership will be shared by both Ningbo and Zhoushan branches of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. There have also been five ports involved with the restructuring including Ningbo, Zhoushan, Jiaxing, Taizhou and Wenzhou.

The combined-port plan is part of the country’s state-owned enterprise restructuring program, which aims to optimizing resources.

Beijing established the Zhejiang Port investment Operation Group last month to integrate, optimize and manage its five major gateways. Each port is expected to specialize in certain functions.