Shanghai plans to offer cabotage trading right to foreign-controlled container shipping companies registered in the port city’s free-trade zone (FTZ).
China-flagged container ships controlled by overseas shipping companies and registered either in Shanghai or Shanghai’s Yangshan port will be given access to China’s coastal shipping trade, according to a draft guidelines made public on 23 June.
The vessels are required to ship boxes in foreign trade if they want to tap the cabotage right, the draft guidelines stated.
The offering of cabotage right comes on the heels of earlier policy easings in four FTZs in Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Tianjin, which facilitate coastal trading of non-Chinese-flagged container ships between six ports in the FTZs and other Chinese coastal ports.
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In April 2015, another five ports in FTZs of Tianjin, Fujian, and Guangdong obtained the central government’s approval to allow access to overseas-flagged box ships.
These are Tianjin port; Jiangyin Port Area in Fuzhou; Haicang Port Area in Xiamen; West Shenzhen port, including Mawan Port Area, Chiwan Port Area, and Shekou Port Area; and Nansha port in Guangzhou.
The extension of the policy easing of cabotage trading rules came after Shanghai’s Yangshan Deep-water Port received a government approval in September 2013.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.