By Caijing Reporter Zhang Na

From Caijing Online

China Ocean Shipping Group (COSCO), China’s largest shipping company, cancelled the plan to purchase some 120 vessels in 2009, a source from the company told Caijing.

According to the original plan, three-quarters were dry bulk cargo ships and the remainders were oil tankers and container carriers. The ambitious purchase plan, which was proposed by COSCO’s various subsidiaries in late 2007 after a banner year, was put on hold in the first quarter and finally axed, the source said.

Given the depressed global shipping market, the cancellation came not as a total surprise. COSCO owns and operates more than 600 commercial vessels.

In December, the Baltic Dry Index, which tracks ocean shipping costs, fell more than 90 percent from its historic high at 11793 in May, to the lowest level since the start of the index in 1987.