Cosco keeping bulk shipping

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Cosco Corp Singapore Ltd, the shipbuilding unit of China's biggest marine company, said it has no immediate plan to sell its bulk transport business. 'The company has no plan at present to divest its dry bulk shipping business,' Cosco Singapore said yesterday in a statement filed to the city's stock exchange, without giving details. Sales from the shipping operations accounted for about 7 per cent of the total last year. The company, which has 12 bulk carriers, said earlier it plans to sell the business, depending on market conditions, to focus more on shipbuilding. The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-shipping rates, plunged 92 per cent last year. The company isn't able to say whether there will be more order cancellations and rescheduling given the conditions in the shipping industry, it said in yesterday's statement. Shipping lines have cancelled or delayed delivery dates for bulk ship orders because of tighter credit and tumbling rates caused by China's waning imports of iron ore and coal. Cosco Singapore, which began taking orders to build bulk carriers in January 2007, said in January this year an unidentified client cancelled two vessels from a total of five. Source: Bloomberg