Shanghai Sinochem-Stolt Shipping Co., Ltd. Officially Put Into Operation

On Sep. 22nd, Shanghai Sinochem-Stolt Shipping Co., Ltd. was inaugurated in Shanghai. Sinochem-Stolt's founding was approved by the Ministry of Communication. The company went through the Ministry's tendering process and finally won the franchise, which signifies the development of Chinese chemicals water transportation on the road of specialization of fleets, intensification of operation and standardization of shipping and, the hiking up of the industrial level.

With rapid development of Chinese economy in particular the heavy chemical industry, some famous chemical multinationals such as BASF, BP, EXXON, SHELL have made investment to establish factories in China one after another, thusly bringing huge demand for the transportation of chemicals and materials. It is estimated by experts that the demand for the domestic transportation for chemicals still expects fast increasing at a speed of 15% percent annually. However, chemical products transportation is a technique-intensified and capital-intensified industry bearing great danger. Domestic transportation of chemical products, especially waterways transportation of liquid chemical goods in bulk for the fine chemicals market is still low in management level and relatively backwards in technique. And hidden troubles in safety and environment protection are still existed in this fields. All these problems have restricted the economic development.

Last year, in hope of enhancing the overall level of the domestic chemicals water transportation sector, the Ministry of Communication launched the tendering for the business of marine transportation of chemical products between ports of mainland China for the shipping joint-ventures. As a result, HaiNan Sinochem Shipment Co., Ltd. and Stolt won the bidding. The two companies made joint investment in funding ShangHai Sinochem STEWARD Shipment Co, Ltd., planning to revolutionize the less developed domestic market of fine chemicals transportation for inner trade by taking advantage of world top technique of special chemical products shipping and management system.

HaiNan Sinochem Shipment Co., Ltd. is the subsidiary of Sinochem International, the biggest shareholder of which is Sinochem Group, one of the four major world-famous state-owned oil companies, having been listed in top global 500 for fifteen times. As China's largest liquid Chemical products' transporter, Hainan Sinochem Shipping is mainly engaged in liquid chemical products' cargo transportation along marine and river transportation routes both globally and domestically. Its business scope also covers ship management and proxy-protection. Hainan Sinochem Shipping has 16 ships for liquid chemical products' transportation; the annual shipping volume has surpassed 1.5 million tons. There are another 12 new high-standard liquid chemical transportation ships under construction. Hainan Sinochem Shipping owns 51% of the equity of Sinochem-Stolt.

Stolt Transportation Group is dual-listed in Oslo and Nasdaq. It is the world's largest transporter of chemicals and other special liquids. It enjoys the leading technology and dominant market share. Its inland river transportation strictly follows the QHSE quality benchmark and wins the acknowledgement from BASF, Shell and other global chemical giants.