Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom is met with the Chairman of the Board for COSCO shipping Group Captain Wei on Saturday November 19 in Vancouver to talk about expanding COSCO operations in B.C. meaning more jobs and opportunities for B.C.

This follows Premier Christy Clark’s successful meeting with Captain Wei in Beijing, while on her jobs and trade mission to China Mission November 9th.

• COSCO is China’s largest shipping corporation and the world’s third largest carrier of bulk commodities specializing in container shipping, and dry bulk cargo.
• COSCO ships export value added lumber, speciality crops, basic metals, paper and paperboard to B.C. and import household goods, construction materials, automotive and electronics parts.
• COSCO has introduced larger vessels to the Prince Rupert service to handle increased volumes of forest product exports from Northern B.C.  They were the first shipping line to call at the Fairview Container Terminal in Prince Rupert. 
• COSCO has two dedicated weekly services to Port Metro Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert. COSCO containers also move through B.C. ports on three additional vessels each week.  
• COSCO named one of its new 8,500 TEU ships MV COSCO Prince Rupert. It made its first call to Prince Rupert in April 2011.  
• COSCO has the second largest fleet in the world, with over 800 modern merchant vessels and an annual carrying capacity of 400 million tons.

(flickr.com)