Thai government to start national container shipping line

In order to promote maritime trade, the Transport Ministry of Thailand is going to establish a national shipping company, according to Bangkok Post's report.

The deputy transport minister, Manaporn Charoensri, asked the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) to conduct a feasibility study for the cabinet to review. Next, the Ministry has to decide if the shipping company should be run as a state enterprise or under a public-private partnership model.

Initially, the shipping company would contribute about 2% of Thailand's export and import trade value or about 31,005 TEUs. According to sources, the national shipping line aims to start operations with four container ships.