China approves Sinotrans, CSC merger

The State Council of the Chinese government has approved the merger of government controlled Sinotrans Group and China Changjiang National Shipping Corp, official government media outlets are attributing to sources within Sinotrans.

The report said the new line will be named Sinotrans CSC Group and an official announcement is expected within several months. No further details of the merger were cited.

The two firms confirmed in July that they had submitted paperwork to the government seeking the merger.

Sinotrans Group, China's largest logistics firm, also operates two subsidiary firms -- Hong Kong-listed Sinotrans Ltd and Sinotrans Shipping Ltd.

The CSC Group, headquartered in Wuhan, China, is the communist nation's largest river shipping firm and also operates two subsidiary business units, Changjiang Shipping Group Phoenix Co and Nanjing Water Transport Industry Co.

The deal would add the 35 container vessels in the Sinotrans fleet to the larger CSC fleet of 380 tankers, 40 container vessels, 12 roll-on/roll-off ships and more than 1,500 bulk vessels.