PHOTO: COSCO Vessel at port of Rotterdam

State-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co (Cosco) plans to heavily invest in US, German and Indian port facilities, in a bid to increase revenue from its port-administration operations by securing controlling stakes in key container ports, Cosco chairman Wei Jiafu told The Nikkei.

Cosco is China's largest shipping firm. Wei said the company is interested in investing in ports along its key container vessel routes, including a port on the east coast of the US or in the Gulf of Mexico, in addition to the port of Hamburg or a port in India.

In port administration, a company collects docking fees from ships and charges them for unloading and storing cargo, in addition to matters related to customs clearance.

Wei particularly emphasised the importance of eastern US ports, saying that such facilities have yet to install deep-sea piers for large container ships that will travel between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean after the expansion of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014.

Wei said he had recently been to Washington DC to start negotiations with potential business partners, and indicated that the firm aims to acquire more than 51 percent stakes in projects aimed at facilitating the expansion of ports.

Cosco is suffering due to slumping demand for container vessels and the bulk carriers that transport iron ore and other goods, in line with shrinking cargo-handling volumes in Europe and the US, as well as soaring crude oil prices.

The firm is trying to secure revenue by investing in six overseas ports, including one on the west coast of the US It acquired a 35-year concession to operate Piraeus, Greece's largest port, in 2009.