China Ocean Shipping Company (1961–1993)
China Ocean Shipping Company, or COSCO in short, was founded in 1961 as a Chinese government agency. In the same year, a subsidiary was formed in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. The Guangzhou subsidiary purchased a British vessel and renamed it as Guanghua. Guanghua made its maiden voyage to Jakarta for the People's Republic of China in April 1961.[9]
After the US resumed diplomatic relations with China in the 1970s, China Ocean Shipping Company signed an agreement with American company Lykes Brothers Steamship Company in 1979. The agreement opens the commercial sea routes between the United States and the People's Republic of China.[10] In the same year, COSCO became the Chinese side representative to collaborate with International Telephone and Telegraph on repairing the communication facilities in the coastal cities of China.[11]
In 1981, COSCO won a contract from the Pakistani Government owned National Tanker Company of Pakistan, for crude oil transport.[12]
In 1991 COSCO was asked by the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to submit information regarding Chinese Government restricting U.S.-flag carriers on doing business in China. COSCO asked FMC to drop its probe instead.[13] FMC also investigated COSCO for its pricing behavior in 1997, but stated there was not enough evidence to launch a formal probe on alleged under-pricing its service to eliminate competitor.[14]
In August 1993, COSCO's ship Yinhe, was anchored off the coast of Oman. US government alleged that the ship carried material exported to Iran, which could be used to make chemical weapons. COSCO claimed that the ship only contained "paper goods, hardware and machine parts".[15] In what became known as the Yinhe incident, United States military vessels and aircraft followed the Yinhe, disrupting its normal travel route.[16] The United States unilaterally disabled the Yinhe 's civilian GPS, causing it lose direction and anchor on the high seas for twenty-four days until it agreed to inspection.[17][18] The Yinhe experienced shortages of water and fuel.[16] The inspection, which occurred in Saudi Arabia did not find any improper chemicals[19] and on September 4, representatives of the Chinese, Saudi and United States governments jointly signed a certification that the ship's cargo did not contain materials related to chemical weapons.[20]
China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (1993–2015)
The company became a holding company and renamed as China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company in 1993.[21] Two other government owned companies, China Marine Bunker Supply Company (Chimbusco in short) and China Road Transport Company, which engaged in oil tanker and road transport businesses respectively, became the subsidiaries of the group in 1988 and 1992 respectively. China Road Transport Company was renamed into COSCO Logistics in 2001 (now part of COSCO Shipping Logistics). As of 2003, COSCO Logistics engaged in shipping agency, freight forwarding, third party logistics and supporting services.[22] While Chimbusco became a joint venture with PetroChina since 2003.[23]
COSCO has a Hong Kong division which the division acquired a HK-listed company Shun Shing Holdings in February 1997.[24] Hong Kong was a British colony until June 30, 1997, and has been a special administrative region of China
Mergers
In 2005, a smaller Central Government owned company, China Ocean Shipping Tally (known as China Tally in short), was merged into COSCO Group.[39]
In 2008, China COSCO Holdings was part of Financial Times Global 500 for the first time.[40]
By 2015, after more than 5 decades, COSCO Group expanded into one of the major shipping company of the country. It also had a few listed subsidiaries: COSCO Pacific, COSCO International Holdings, China COSCO Holdings, China International Marine Containers, etc.,. Real estate developer, Sino-Ocean Group, was an associate company of COSCO until 2010.
In December 2015, COSCO Group merged with fellow Chinese Government owned China Shipping Group[41]
