Mr Song Dexing, Director of the Waterway Department of the Ministry of Transport, said in an interview with China Waterway Newspaper on 25 May that companies involved in international shipping business and registered at Yangshan Bonded Terminal in Shanghai will be exempt from business tax as part of government measures to help the sector survive the current worldwide economic downturn.

The ministry will ban any international vessels from entering the domestic market. He didn’t spell out the definition of ‘international vessels’ but was most likely referring to Chinese vessels plying international routes. He predicted that the downturn in the international shipping market, particularly in the container sector, would continue for the foreseeable future but that the domestic shipping market would recover much faster due to a basket of measures that the central government is taking to keep this year’s GDP growth level at eight per cent.