COSCO ships giant machine to Shanghai for import expo

A giant milling machine arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday for the upcoming first China International Import Expo, after a more than 30-day voyage from the German port of Hamburg, its shipper said.

The massive machine tool was brought by Waldrich Coburg, a German company specializing in industrial machinery and large machine tools.

It was carried by COSCO Spain, a container vessel with a capacity of 13,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), owned by China COSCO Shipping Co, the nation's largest shipping group by fleet size. As one of the largest industrial products to be seen in the expo, it was packaged in 12 containers, according to the publicity office of Shanghai-headquartered COSCO Shipping.

This is the first transport service that COSCO Shipping has offered to exhibitors since it was nominated as the recommended global transport service provider for the first CIIE.

The milling machine－which is 20 meters long, 10 meters wide and eight meters high－weighs 200 metric tons and will cover an area of 200 square meters in the high-end intelligent equipment exhibition area of the first CIIE, which is scheduled to be held in Shanghai from Nov 5 to 10.

The area will focus on four themes－aerospace, integrated circuits, industrial automation and robotics.

The milling machine can turn out high-accuracy micron-sized parts, which can be used for automobile production and the aerospace industry. The German company hopes to attract Chinese buyers with its high-tech equipment at the expo.

"As China is currently undergoing an industrial upgrading boom, the CIIE this year will gather a large number of top-class intelligent equipment manufacturing companies," said Liang Feng, president of China National Machine Tool Sales and Technical Service Corporation.

He added that the world's leading metal cutting machine tools will be displayed at the expo, from companies including DMG Mori, Mazak Corp, EMAG GmbH & Co KG, Makino Corp and Okuma Corp.

COSCO Shipping has developed a dedicated platform for foreign companies looking to book containers in order to facilitate services for the expo, and is working with customs authorities to help goods get faster clearance, said Yu Zenggang, the company's deputy-general manager.

The company so far has successfully assisted in the shipment of exhibitors from nations such as Germany, Turkey, Barbados, South Africa, Denmark, Italy, Egypt, the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and Fiji.

The shipments contain tea, wine, medical equipment, food, beverages and pharmaceutical products, as well as vehicles and manufacturing machinery.