Disgruntled shippers are leaving in their droves from the company that used to be known as China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) following its merger with Cosco earlier this year.
CSCL joined forces with Cosco Container Lines to form China Cosco Shipping this March – a move pushed by Beijing which has been aiming to get loss making state-owned enterprises to merge to become more competitive. However, in the first few months of this merger Splash understands many former CSCL customers have decided to take their business elsewhere.
One shipper told Splash: “We were never a big Cosco customer, having suffered too many unacceptable experiences over the years. We used to work a lot with China Shipping, whose service we always found impressive and responsive, but in its joint response to our tender this year, the new enterprise did not fare well.” He described the service levels of the new merged entity as “decidedly average, and trending down”.
“They are certainly not exactly covering themselves in glory,” the Asian based shipper said.
Officials from China Cosco Shipping declined to comment on the news.
One consultant contacted by Splash said: “I’m aware the Chinese had lost a few clients.”
The most vocal critic of the merged entity, Hong Kong-based analyst Charles De Trenck told Splash: “Cosco appears to have completely mishandled CSCL staff and equipment integration. In many geographies, particularly the US, they were said to have fired and chopped former CSCL staff. There was zero planning.”
De Trenck reckoned China Cosco Shipping has seen “a large amount of business walk out the door”.
Year end statistics are likely to show that China Cosco Shipping has lost market share since merging. Next year it joins forces with CMA CGM, Evergreen and OOCL in the new Ocean Alliance.
CSCL as a brand has since disappeared. It will now be known as Cosco Shipping Development as it switches to become a financial services platform with leasing businesses.
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