Cosco Shipping Holdings, China Cosco Shipping’s container shipping and port arm, is reportedly expected to sell its terminal in Long Beach for more than $1bn.
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed company has hired sales advisors and aims to complete the sale by June at the latest.
The bids could come from port operators, pension funds or private equity, including APM Terminals, Ocean Network Express, Evergreen Marine, Hyundai Merchant Marine, DP World and SSA Marine, the WSJ reported.
TradeWinds has sought comments from Cosco.
Long Beach Container Terminal is owned and operated by Orient Overseas (International) Ltd, which was taken over by Cosco for $6.3bn earlier this year.
To gain the approval from the US Committee on Foreign Investment for the takeover, Cosco has agreed to put the terminal into a US-run trust before selling it to ease Washington's security concerns.
With a reported budget of $1.5bn, the nearly fully automated terminal will have an annual handling capacity of 3.3 million teu and be capable of handling vessels above 20,000 teu when its construction is completed in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Long Beach, one of the largest container ports in the US, saw its volume increase by 7.9% on year to 6.73 million teu during January-October.
