Struggling Chinese shipbuilder diversifies into parking lot business

Tokyo

CHINESE shipbuilders are under so much financial strain that one of them is literally being turned into a parking lot.

China Ocean Industry Group Ltd, which dropped "shipbuilding" from its name in March, acquired a car-park operator last year to meet an estimated shortage of 50 million parking spaces in the world's most populous nation. The company plans to build and operate 100,000 lots in China within three years, contributing about 70 per cent of total operating profit by then, according to chief executive officer Zhang Shi Hong.