“Major ports in the country are holding consolidation talks with regional rivals as resource duplication and stifling competition threaten to destroy profits at a time of dwindling business,” China Daily reported, citing the recent merger of two competing port operators in Tianjin.
Intriguingly the article continued: “In the Yangtze delta region, the competition between Shanghai's Yangshan deep-water port and neighboring Ningbo-Zhoushan port was widely perceived as healthy when exports from the region were growing at a breakneck pace… Now, the two rivals are reportedly talking to each other about a possible partnership, or even a merger.”
These two ports have sparred with each other for much of the past decade, especially since Shanghai’s Yangshan development got underway. Yangshan, a pair of islands to the south east of Shanghai, technically falls in Zhejiang province, Ningbo’s territory. Both ports grew incredibly fast this decade but are now suffering in the downturn.