Playing the “China Card” in U.S. Ports

Art of Supply

80 percent of all ship-to-shore (S2S) cranes at ports in the United States - and 75 percent of all S2S cranes in the world - are made by just one company: ZPMC.

Short for Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited, ZPMC is a Chinese state-owned manufacturing and engineering firm. It was founded in 1992 and quickly grew to become the largest S2S crane manufacturer in the world.

U.S.-China relations have been on shaky footing in recent times, making concerns about these cranes, and the critical role they play in major ports, a top priority in both the private and public sectors.

In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner looks at the high stakes associated with port security and why cranes are at the center of everyone’s attention:

• Why the Biden Administration is concerned by the risk posed by these cranes
• The data management and decision-making patterns that allowed ZPMC to assume a dominant position globally
• What may be next… in terms of security and also in terms of new sources of supply

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