After selling its loss-making shipyard and shipbuilding business in May 2017 to another subsidiary owned by its parent, Mainboard-listed Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) entered the logistics sector 10 months later when it completed the acquisition of established logistics provider Cogent Holdings in March 2018.

“Through M&A, we could quickly obtain resources such as warehouses, but more importantly, we could quickly acquire an existing operations team,” Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) president and executive director Jiang Kai tells The Edge Singapore.

Today, Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) has anchored itself as integrated logistics and supply chain solutions provider, part of a vertically-integrated supply chain under parent China Cosco Shipping Corporation. Providing one-stop shipping and logistics solutions across Southeast Asia, Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) complements its parents shipping operations and is poised to seize growth opportunities as trade grows in the region.

China Cosco Shipping Corporation was established as a merger of China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) and China Shipping Group Company in 2016.

According to Jiang, China Cosco envisioned its Singapore subsidiary to become an “important” component of an end-to-end logistics service, where the Singapore business focused on developing integrated land logistics services across Southeast Asia as a future core business. “Our parent’s shipping companies handle the sea leg, and Cosco Shipping handles the land leg,” explains Jiang, adding that such a model is more “sustainable with greater market potential”.

Cosco Shipping’s current logistics business spans warehousing, container depot, automotive logistics and transport management. For 1HFY2026 ended June 30, the company reported a 188% y-o-y rise in patmi to $7.57 million, on revenue of $96.8 million which was up 6% y-o-y.

The logistics business, with Cogent the main vehicle for delivering these solutions, contributed 88% of revenue, rising 6% y-o-y to $85.2 million. The other two segments of property management, and ship repair and marine-related services contributed 1.3% ($1.27 million) and 10.7% ($10.4 million) respectively to total revenue.

The company’s property subsidiary operates an office leasing business in Singapore while the marine engineering subsidiaries carry out ship repair, inspection of life-saving and fire-fighting equipment, supply of ship stores and provisions, as well as fabrication of steel structures for ships and offshore platforms locally and regionally.

Some 60–70% of Cogent’s container storage business comes from within the China Cosco group, providing a stable revenue base according to Jiang. “All business from internal customers is still contracted at market prices, but because we’re in the same group, they won’t easily go out to the market to choose another provider unless we are unable to serve them due to capacity constraints.”

The remainder of this segment of the business comes from external customers such as Hapag Lloyd, Maersk, CMA and among others. Contracts with third-party customers are typically one-year long with clauses that ensure sufficient time for the company to find new customers should the contract be terminated prematurely.

One competitive advantage of the logistics business in Singapore is its proprietary overhead container storage system, an award-winning design that uses overhead bridge cranes to stack up to 15 empty containers high on its rooftop container depot. “This technology is very suitable for Singapore because land is extremely expensive, and stacking empty containers in the air is an efficient solution,” says Jiang.

Besides allowing for greater storage capacity, the system also enables faster turnaround times for hauliers collecting/returning containers at the container depot.

The overhead container storage design is so innovative that other container depots in Singapore have paid Cogent for the right to use it. For Cogent itself, the design is used at the Cogent One-Stop Logistics Hub and its Jurong Island Logistics Hub (JILH).

In addition to the patented storage solution, another of Cogent’s competitive strengths is its experience in chemical logistics which has been accumulated over many years, notes Jiang.

Cogent’s customers include a large MNC operating a major chemical plant in Jurong Island and local chemical firms, which utilise its dangerous goods warehousing solutions that have earned a reputation for reliability and safe handling.

Jurong Island serves as a major hub for the energy and chemicals industry, with more than 100 companies operating on the island located southwest of mainland Singapore. At present, Cogent’s JILH spans around 61,000 sqm and can handle 100,000 twenty-foot containers annually, maintaining over 90% warehouse occupancy since becoming operational in April 2021, according to Cosco Shipping.

To expand the JILH facility, Cosco Shipping had raised around $272 million via a rights issue in 2025 and the second phase of the JILH is scheduled for opening around end-2026/early 2027. Upon completion, capacity at the facility will double, with phase two adding 63,000 sqm of warehousing space.

Cosco Shipping is “confident” about Jurong Island’s prospects. “From our market outlook, we’re optimistic about Jurong Island’s chemical sector,” says Jiang, adding that the company has been actively undertaking contract negotiations with existing and potential customers.

“I can’t give specific numbers before contracts are signed, but we are quite optimistic that once the government inspections are completed and we’re allowed to start operations at year-end, we’ll be able to fill up the new phase two capacity fairly quickly.”

Cosco Shipping’s confidence stems from the sustained demand from the chemical businesses operating on Jurong Island. “Although geopolitical events like the Middle East crisis have sometimes caused disruptions in raw material supply or reduced demand, and new technologies are partially substituting traditional chemical raw materials, in the long term, chemicals remain the backbone of industrial manufacturing, with many industrial raw materials coming from chemical companies,” explains Jiang.

“This analysis, plus multiple rounds of deep communication with customers that have grown together with us over many years, help us make a decision to expand JILH.”

JILH will be the largest integrated storage and logistics centre not only on Jurong Island, but for the whole of Singapore, affording flexibility in serving customers, notes Jiang.

Cosco Shipping’s long-term ambition is to become “the most trusted integrated logistics enterprise in Southeast Asia”. At present, it has direct operations in Malaysia and stakes in logistics companies in Indonesia and Vietnam.

From 2020 to 2023, through Cogent, the company acquired five logistics companies in Malaysia. Following the acquisitions, through continuous business restructuring and integration, the company gradually improved the revenue and profitability of its Malaysian logistics business.

“At the end of 2025, our Malaysia business was still roughly at breakeven, because reorganising and restructuring involve time and cost,” says Jiang. “But in the first half of this year, the business has shown a very strong growth momentum in both revenue and profit and I think we will be able to sustain this, because Malaysia has huge opportunities for logistics development.”

On a broader scale, Jiang sees economic and trade growth in the region as an opportunity for Cosco Shipping. He points out the speed of growth for markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, noting their sizable consumer markets relative to Singapore.

“As manufacturing in these countries grows, the import of raw materials and exports of finished goods generate huge demand for logistics and shipping,” says Jiang. These are exactly the development opportunities Cosco Shipping wants to capture in these countries.”

To grow in Southeast Asia, a hub was required and Singapore as the trade and financial centre of Southeast Asia was an ideal headquarters for such an endeavour. Jiang believes that once the Tuas Mega Port is fully operational, the island-state will cement its status as a maritime and trade hub, alluding to more business opportunities locally and regionally.

“A large proportion of cargo only transits Singapore without being discharged into the domestic logistics system — containers are unloaded, re-consolidated, and re-loaded to ships bound for the rest of the world,” he adds, sharing that it is essential for Cosco Shipping to link its scope of services to the wider Southeast Asian economy for growth.

Jiang reiterates the importance and competitive advantage of being “one” integrated logistics and supply chain player. Using the Malaysian business as an example, Jiang says the goal is to build one logistics enterprise that can serve customers with different logistics needs and not five separate logistics companies all branded under the same company.

“No customer wants to communicate with multiple companies and exchange data and information across them ... they expect one interface, one system, one solution,” reiterates Jiang. “Otherwise, we’d be eliminated by the market.”

When asked what separates Cosco Shipping from its competitors, Jiang notes that not only has the company been able to adapt timely to evolving customer and market changes, it is also able to resolve customers’ logistical challenges through “efficient and reliable” execution. “By relieving their logistical worries, our customers can focus on growing their own business.”

Jiang adds: “Cosco Shipping can integrate the maritime transportation resources of its major shareholder, China Cosco, as well as resources within China, and translate these advantages into contracts, revenue and profit.

“We believe that in five to 10 years, our logistics businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia will continue to grow steadily.”

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