China Shipping Container Lines

In 1997, the Chinese government founded China Shipping Group as a SOE. That same year, China Shipping Container Lines Co. Ltd (CSCL) was founded in Shanghai as a subsidiary of China Shipping Group.

After China joined the WTO in 2001, CSCL grew rapidly, playing a major role in supporting China's economic advancement and international trade. With continued support from the Chinese government, CSCL's global TEU market share increased 126% between 2000 and 2006, becoming the second fastest growing container carrier in the world. In 2004, CSCL became the world's tenth largest ocean container line in terms of TEU capacity, and in 2007, it became the world's sixth largest. In 2005, CSCL was named the “World’s Most Profitable Container Liner Company” by the journal American Shipper. In 2007 and again in 2008, Long Beach Port Authority awarded CSCL the 'Honor of Environmental Protection'. In 2009, CSCL was awarded the 'Best Annual Carrier' by Michaels Stores.

In China, CSCL had in-house trucking companies, a container yard, and the company called on 12 Chinese seaports and several riverports. The company owned assets in dozens of countries. Over the years, CSCL developed a large intermodal network in the US by contracting with trucking companies and all major US railroads. In May 2001, CSCL, Marine Terminal Corporation, and BNSF Railway announced a twice-weekly on-dock train service to deliver China Shipping containers from the Port of Los Angeles to Chicago, IL.

CSCL first went public in 2004 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, issuing 2.42 billion shares. CSCL made another IPO in 2007 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. CSCL's early successes were credited to the leadership of Captain Li Kelin. In 2006, after Kelin retired, Li Shaode – who had 40 years of experience in the shipping industry – was appointed chairman of CSCL. Shaode along with other veteran members of the leadership team continued CSCL's tradition of success. As China increasingly became the world's factory, CSCL played a significant role in transporting exports of consumer goods and imports of recycled material from developed countries.

On July 1, 2013, CSCL suspended all its services in Iran due to US sanctions. In 2014, CSCL along with CMA CGM and United Arab Shipping formed the Ocean Three Alliance – a business agreement to share vessel space. In December 2014, CSCL christened the 19,100 TEU CSCL Globe, the world's largest container ship at the time. By May 2014, China Shipping Container Line's service profile consisted of 40 routes including trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, Asia-Europe, Asia-Africa, and intra-Asia routes and a fleet of 148 container vessels totaling 656,000 TEUs.

In February 2016, CSCL's parent company, China Shipping Group completed a merger with COSCO Group to form COSCO SHIPPING Group. CSCL's assets were transferred to the container shipping branch of COSCO Group, COSCO Container Lines. CSCL's shareholders approved 100% acquisition of Florens Container Lease, the container leasing subsidiary of COSCO Group and Dong Fang International Investment, the container leasing subsidiary of China Shipping Group. CSCL's shareholders also approved taking over the ship leasing subsidiary of China Shipping Group, Oriental Fleet International Ltd. As a result, CSCL was renamed COSCO SHIPPING Development Co. and became a holding company for COSCO SHIPPING's container and ship leasing business.

The company provides container and ship leasing, container manufacturing, marine insurance brokerage, and risk management for ocean shipping companies.

COSCO SHIPPING Development owns Florens Asset Management, one of the world's leading lessors of intermodal shipping containers. As of March 2020, Florens' container fleet consisted of 3.65 million TEUs. Florens leases dry containers, reefers, open-top containers, and flat racks on short- and long-term leases. Florens Asset Management was founded in 1987 and was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of COSCO Group. Florens also incorporates the container fleet of Dong Fang International Asset Management, which was owned by China Shipping Group.

Accidents and incidents

CSCL Jupiter

On 14 August 2017, the container ship CSCL Jupiter ran aground near Bath, Netherlands shortly after departing from the port of Antwerp headed for Hamburg, Germany. The grounding resulted in the suspension of all shipping traffic to and from the port. Following the successful re-floating operation, the ship was led to the port of Antwerp, to undergo an inspection.