China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, the largest container ship operator in China, is to resume investing in ports. “I believe now is a good time to go bottom-fishing,” Wei Jiafu, president and chief executive officer of the group, told China Daily.

Many shipping lines invested heavily in ports at the start of this century but activity declined as a result of the global economic downturn that followed the 2008 financial crisis.

In July 2011 Cosco bought a 13.7 per cent stake in Shenzhen’s Yantian terminal from AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container ship operator by volume. The deal cost Cosco US$520m, which was nearly half the price the two groups had negotiated before the crisis, according to Mr Wei.

Ji Yuntao, an analyst with Citic Securities, agreed that it was a good time to invest in ports, but said that only a handful of large-scale companies had enough money to capitalise on the opportunity.

Even so, he thought it would take some time for Cosco to gain substantially from its investment in ports. “Given the current sluggish global economic recovery and China’s shift in focus from rapid GDP growth to upgrading its industrial base, the shipping industry is unlikely to see a booming market in the near future,” he said.