Latest news with #CKHutchisonHoldings
Nikkei Asia
25-05-2025
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
CK Hutchison navigates rough waters in sale of Panama Canal ports
HONG KONG -- Major Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings is facing mounting pressure from Beijing to cancel the sale of two ports near the Panama Canal. With Chinese authorities stepping up the pressure on the company, CK Hutchison has indicated it will not move forward against Beijing's objections. The outcome will likely be swayed by ongoing tariff negotiations between the U.S. and China.
Japan Forward
15-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Forward
Maritime Shipping is the Lifeblood of the Economy, but Its Complexity Carries Big Risks
When Donald Trump announced his desire to reassert American control over the Panama Canal, it left the world surprised and puzzled. What did the President want with the Central American waterway, which the United States handed over to Panama more than a quarter-century ago? So much head-turning news has flowed from Washington since Trump's Inauguration Day bombshell that it is easy to forget what happened next. The US government has not taken over the canal (at least not yet). But Trump's statement did set in motion a major change for the crucial shipping route used by nearly 10,000 vessels in 2024. CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong-based company, owns ports at the canal's two entrances. The Port of Balboa is on the Atlantic Ocean, and the Port of Cristobal is on the Pacific. CK Hutchison agreed in March to sell its stakes to a consortium led by the American asset management company BlackRock. One US national security analyst called the deal a "huge victory" in America's strategic competition with China. T he Balboa Port of the Panama Canal (Atlantic side) has been operated by a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings. (©Reuters) The episode should serve as a wake-up call for countries around the world. Among its lessons is that maritime transport is now a front-and-center issue in global geopolitics. America, Japan, and like-minded partners such as Australia and India have been engaged in intensive discussions on how to strengthen their industrial supply chains. Yet most of the focus has been on the production and sourcing of strategic inputs, such as semiconductors and critical minerals. How those goods and others are moved from place to place has received less attention. That should change. Maritime transport has immense significance for prosperity and security. Almost 90% of global trade is conducted through commercial shipping, and for some countries, the number is higher. In 2023, maritime shipping accounted for 99.6% of Japan's total trade volume. The business of maritime shipping is immensely complicated, making regulation and monitoring difficult. Nationalities of the companies and people involved are wide-ranging, and sometimes hard to pin down. A container ship passes through the Panama Canal on the outskirts of Panama City in August (©Reuters via Kyodo) Shipping firms typically don't own their ships, at least not on paper. In most cases, they are merely charterers, renting vessels from foreign subsidiaries, affiliated companies, or other businesses. Moreover, the flag that a container ship flies rarely matches the nationality of its users or owners. Japan is a prime example. According to the Japan Maritime Public Relations Center, in 2023, the Japanese merchant fleet consisted of 2,211 vessels. Of those, only 311, or 14.1%, were Japan-flagged. Half of the rest — more than 950 ships — were registered and flagged in Panama. Other popular flags included Liberia (10.5%), the Marshall Islands (6.4%), Singapore (4.3%), Hong Kong (3.4%), and the Bahamas (2.8%). The international nature of ships' crews adds to this complexity. Most of the Japanese merchant fleet is operated by non-Japanese seafarers. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), as of May 2024, only 1.5% of crew members on Japanese ships were Japanese nationals. The rest were from the Philippines (68.9%), India (13.3%), Myanmar (4.2%), and other countries. "Flag-of-convenience" vessels and international crews help shipping companies cut costs. But there are trade-offs. In emergencies such as a major natural disaster, ships that are owned, crewed, and registered by people and companies under local jurisdiction can become important assets. After the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, for example, 41 container ships operated by foreign shipping companies canceled planned port calls to Japan, according to MLIT. Container cargo could not be unloaded at Keihin Port near Tokyo for two months. The problem might have been mitigated if Japan had had access to more home-flagged ships subject to its own laws and regulations. Balance is important, of course. In non-peacetime emergencies — that is, wars — local shipping can be a liability. Commercial vessels that fly the flags of combatant countries can be subject to capture, blockade, and attack. "Neutral"-flagged shipping is critical to maintaining the flow of goods to countries involved in armed conflicts. A container ship passes through the Panama Canal near Panama City on January 30, 2025. (©Kyodo) At the same time, however, ship operators and crews may refuse to voyage to war-torn countries, especially if they have no family or citizenship connections there. It is therefore important to maintain a maritime workforce that is at least partly local and presumably willing to take more risks to keep the homeland supplied. Avoiding conflicts should be top priority, needless to say. But if a conflict does break out, keeping maritime transport operating smoothly would be critical. That requires planning — ad hoc responses aren't enough. Cooperation is especially needed in anticipation of a potential contingency, including "gray zone" situations, a step removed from full-fledged wars. Government agencies, the military, law enforcement, and shipping companies should work together to identify the most appropriate responses and create plans to implement them quickly. As part of that planning, the government and shipping companies should consider the right balance between home-flagged ships, flag-of-convenience ships, and chartered foreign vessels. More thorough information-gathering and analysis on crew composition, ships' locations during voyages, and the risks related to different countries of registration would be helpful, too. Maritime shipping may be a commercial, private-sector business, but it is a business that can affect the fate of nations. It is time for policymakers to treat it that way. Author: Shino Watanabe, PhD
HKFP
13-05-2025
- Business
- HKFP
Hong Kong's CK Hutchison assures ports deal not to proceed under ‘unlawful or non-compliant circumstances'
Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings has pledged that its controversial ports deal with a US-led consortium will not proceed under any 'unlawful or non-compliant circumstances.' In a Chinese-language statement released on Monday, the company said it had planned to address the ports deal at its annual shareholder meeting on May 22 but decided to issue a statement after receiving enquiries from shareholders and the media. CK Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and his family, wrote that 'this transaction could not and would not proceed under any unlawful or non-compliant circumstances.' The conglomerate announced on March 4 that it had entered into a US$22.8 billion deal to sell 43 ports, including two located at the Panama Canal, to a consortium comprising the US-based asset management firm BlackRock and global port operator Terminal Investment Limited, headquartered in Geneva. CK Hutchison said at the time that the completion of the port deal was subject to a series of conditions, including obtaining consent and approval from the legal and compliance departments. The group also gave assurance that there were no 'illegal or prohibited circumstances' involved in the transaction, and that they would get the 'necessary approval' from shareholders. Panama ports Since CK Hutchison announced the ports deal, attention has been drawn to the sale of its two ports at the Panama Canal – the Balboa and Cristobal ports – located on either side of the Central American country's waterway. The Panama Canal is a primary route for trade as it is the main connection between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Over 40 per cent of US container traffic is said to travel through the canal every year. The transaction came amid a deepening trade war between the US and China. US President Donald Trump has claimed that the Panama Canal is controlled by China and that the US should 'take it back.' Beijing has criticised the deal, suggesting that the Hong Kong conglomerate is caving in to the US at the expense of China. Chinese state-backed newspaper Ta Kung Pao has published at least seven scathing commentaries about the deal since the sale announcement. The op-eds, some of which were reposted by Beijing's top offices in Hong Kong, called the sale an act of 'spineless grovelling' that neglected national interests and 'betrayed and sold out all Chinese people.' Hutchison Ports – a division of CK Hutchison – operates 53 ports in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. In the March 4 announcement, the company said that the transaction did not include the sale of its operations in mainland China and Hong Kong, where it has a total of 10 ports.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Take control of the Panama Canal, locals tell Trump
Huddled together on a dirt bank outside a building site on the edge of the Panama Canal, the men shout fervidly about Donald Trump. The majority of Panamanians have reacted with revulsion to Mr Trump's pledge to 'take back' the key waterway – with thousands having marched and burned effigies of the US president in protest. But this gaggle of out-of-work construction workers are not excoriating Mr Trump – they are passionately cheering him on. 'May Trump come, take the canal in his pocket and remove all those people from its administration. They are thieves,' one worker, who asked to remain anonymous, bellows, his arms flailing. Amid rising frustration with José Raúl Mulino, Panama's president, is an emerging belief that the canal benefits just a few 'elites', resulting in some Panamanians to call for Mr Trump's intervention. In his first 100 days, Mr Trump has turned the 51-mile waterway which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans into a political hot rod, claiming it is under Chinese control. Although the Panamanian government has repeatedly denied any Chinese influence, a Hong Kong-based firm, CK Hutchison Holdings, does manage two ports adjacent to the canal, which some analysts have suggested raises competitive and security concerns for the US. Panama was one of the first countries to recognise Taiwan as part of China. The Trump administration has pressured the firm to sell those interests to a US consortium that includes BlackRock Inc. In December, a spokesman for China insisted the country 'will as always respect Panama's sovereignty' with regards to the waterway. Only Panamanians are entitled to work on the canal and it is run by the Panama Canal Authority – but some workers have cited concern with Mr Mulino and what they claim is Chinese influence. Work is currently under way on the canal's fourth bridge after a Chinese consortium won a $1.4 billion contract to build it, with local workmen claiming they have been shafted in favour of foreigners. 'We are Panamanians and we want to work here but we are unemployed, but the Chinese, they are working. The Panamanians are humiliated,' another worker, who did not want to be named, said. Marvin Moreno, a welder who is currently working on the construction of the fourth bridge, is among the cohort of Panamanian workers egging Mr Trump on to seize the canal. 'Right now [Trump] is the best option because the president we have is putting Panamanians practically against a wall. He is practically acting as a dictator,' he told The Telegraph during his lunch break. Mr Moreno, 42, said Mr Trump has 'his good things and bad things'. He said the Panamanian government was 'attacking our sovereignty', not Mr Trump. Since taking office, Mr Trump has criticised former president Jimmy Carter for 'foolishly' returning the canal, which was constructed by the US in the early 1900s, to Panama. Two treaties signed in 1977 ceded the canal back to the Central American country – with the canal turned over on Dec 31, 1999. The US is the canal's biggest user, with some 40 per cent of all US container traffic crossing it each year. Amid claims America is being 'ripped off' by the canal, Mr Trump had dispatched Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, and Pete Hegseth, his defence secretary, to Panama – with the latter delivering a press conference from the side of the canal, the US flag next to him, telling the world: 'We will take back the Panama Canal from China's influence.' Both visits paid dividends. Following Mr Rubio's visit in February, Mr Mulino said he had made an 'important' decision to pull out of China's Belt and Road Initiative, the country's massive investment project. But the biggest wins for Mr Trump were those ironed out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the two countries during Mr Hegseth's visit in April. The deal agrees to give US military vessels free passage of the canal, something critics say violates the neutrality treaty, and, crucially, it allows US troops to return to three areas on Panamanian soil for joint military training. 'It is an invasion... I said camouflaged invasion, because that's how I view it,' Ricardo Lombana, the leader of Panama's opposition, told The Telegraph. 'This is our country, and you're giving a designated area to a foreign government or to foreign military,' he said, adding that the concessions are likely illegal and are being challenged in court. Javier Martínez-Acha, Panama's foreign affairs minister, has insisted the deal 'does not imply a surrender of sovereignty, nor does it violate the national constitution, nor the neutrality treaty'. Days after The Telegraph spoke to Mr Lombana, Mr Trump said he wanted more. Writing on his Truth Social platform, he demanded both US military and commercial ships be given free passage through the Panama and Suez canals – claiming they would 'not exist' without the US. One person taken aback by Mr Trump's allegations about the canal was Jorge Quijano, the former administrator of the Panama Canal Authority. When he hosted Mike Pence and Mr Rubio during Mr Trump's first term, both men, he said, praised the canal and how the Panamanians were operating it – and made no mention of Chinese influence. 'The way he negotiates is like a magician, he has his hand here, but he's doing something else over here… I think his intention was always having military forces here,' he told The Telegraph. Mr Quijano fears that the canal by nature is 'indefensible' and the only way to protect it is to 'keep it neutral'. While some workers are supportive of Mr Trump, other Panamanians are so vehemently opposed they are willing to lay down their lives to stop him. Sebastian King, special adviser for the union of marine engineers, can still remember the moment US troops tied his hands behind his back and held a rifle to his head during the US invasion of Panama in 1989. Mr King accepted that China may have a 'soft fist influence' in countries in Latin America, but blamed the US for allowing China to win infrastructure projects by not putting in competitive bids for infrastructure projects. 'The people who think Trump is the answer to our problems are mistaken,' he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
South China Morning Post
29-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing appears in person for first time since Hutchison ports deal
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing has made his first in-person public appearance since controversy erupted over his conglomerate's sale of its overseas ports to a consortium led by American investment firm BlackRock amid the US-China trade war, a deal that has drawn Beijing's ire. Advertisement The founder of CK Hutchison Holdings visited Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital (HKSH) in Happy Valley on Tuesday to observe a demonstration of a cutting-edge, non-invasive device donated by the Li Ka Shing Foundation for treating liver cancer. '[The hospital] providing this option is definitely great news,' Li said. The 'Histotripsy 2.0' system was delivered to the hospital this month. The 96-year-old tycoon, nicknamed 'Superman' for his business acumen and influence, appeared energetic and joyful, grinning while shaking hands with Walton Li Wai-tat, CEO of HKSH Medical Group and medical superintendent of the hospital.
